Man, 19, 'set up elaborate fake kidnapping because he didn't want to go to work'
A 19 year-old man set up an elaborate fake kidnapping attempt to avoid having to go to work, police say. Brandon Soules is said to have stuffed a bandanna in his mouth on February 10. He is then said to have tied his hands behind his back with a belt before laying by the side of the road until someone stopped to help him.
After being spotted by a Good Samaritan, Soules was taken to police in Coolidge, Arizona. The tire shop worker claimed to have been abducted outside his home by two masked men, who hit him over the head before bundling him in a car.
Soules claimed he had been abducted by men keen to locate a large sum of cash he alleged his father had hidden locally, and had texts. But Soules alleged deception began to unravel after cops obtained surveillance video from the teen’s house, with no sighting of the kidnappers he’d mentioned.
A Coolidge PD spokesman told KNXV: ‘He informed us that he was hit in the head and stuffed in a car in front of his home and this occurred after seven o’clock in the morning, but when we located video surveillance in front of his home, we were able to see no such thing.’
Sharing what is said to have happened when Soules was confronted with his alleged lies, the spokesman continued: ‘He informed us that he at first stuffed a bandanna in his mouth. Afterwards, he took off his own belt and bound his hands with his own belt.
‘(He) laid on the ground and scooted out on the side of the road so somebody could see him and waited.’
Soules was charged with reporting false information on February 17, and is said to have admitted the crime.
He has not yet been sentenced – and has also been fired from the job he was trying to avoid going to.
Soules claimed he had been abducted by men keen to locate a large sum of cash he alleged his father had hidden locally, and had texts. But Soules alleged deception began to unravel after cops obtained surveillance video from the teen’s house, with no sighting of the kidnappers he’d mentioned.
A Coolidge PD spokesman told KNXV: ‘He informed us that he was hit in the head and stuffed in a car in front of his home and this occurred after seven o’clock in the morning, but when we located video surveillance in front of his home, we were able to see no such thing.’
Sharing what is said to have happened when Soules was confronted with his alleged lies, the spokesman continued: ‘He informed us that he at first stuffed a bandanna in his mouth. Afterwards, he took off his own belt and bound his hands with his own belt.
‘(He) laid on the ground and scooted out on the side of the road so somebody could see him and waited.’
Soules was charged with reporting false information on February 17, and is said to have admitted the crime.
He has not yet been sentenced – and has also been fired from the job he was trying to avoid going to.