Moesha Gardener sent her husband a terrifying text last week. It showed what appeared to be a man underneath a blanket on the couch of their North Bethesda apartment — a man, she told her husband, who had forced his way into their third-floor apartment.

Donte Blash jumped in his car and called police, explaining his wife urgently needed help. He and “approximately eight separate marked police cruisers,” lights flashing and sirens blaring, rushed toward the apartment, according to a court document. He and several officers arrived at the same time.

They found Gardener — unharmed — sitting “casually” on the couch, near a cellphone on a tripod.

It was just a prank, Gardener said. She had used AI to conjure the intruder. Police informed officers yet to arrive that they could slow down.

The court document describes Blash at this point as “visibly emotional.”

He had driven home “at high speeds, running through intersections (in an unmarked civilian vehicle) and breaking traffic laws because he thought his wife was in danger.”

Gardener “nonchalantly, replied that it was a joke/prank and she did not expect him to respond so seriously,” the document continues.

Then it was the police’s turn to explain “the severity of her actions.” She had put police “and the whole community” in danger and “nobody found this prank funny or amusing.”

“Again,” police reported, “she responded that it was just a prank.”

Gardener did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

She was charged with two counts of falsely alleging the commission of a crime to 911 and was released on $10,000 bond. Her court date is scheduled for Nov. 24.

About 40% to 50% of calls to Montgomery County’s emergency call center are nonemergency, according to Jennifer Reidy-Hall, its director. The agency hopes to mitigate the call volume with AI by the end of next year.