Clallam County – The Clallam County Sheriff’s Office is getting the word out about the seriousness of falsely reporting crimes, after learning that the recent report of a man being beaten and robbed by so-called “mountain men” was actually a man’s attempt to get out of trouble with his family.
On December 26 at 8:00pm, a man told deputies that after his car broke down along Highway 112 west of Port Angeles, a couple of men stopped to offer help but instead beat him up and took his money.
He described the two males as having a “mountain man” look, saying one had a long beard.
Four days later on December 30, deputies received an anonymous tip about this case. They were told that the victim had fabricated the report of being robbed and had actually lost all of his money at a casino that night.
Deputies followed up with another interview of the alleged victim, who eventually admitted he had lied about the robbery due to having financial issues.
Sheriff Bill Benedict describes why filing a false crime report is such a bad idea.
“We devoted an awful lot of law enforcement resources to trying to find these people that didn’t exist. And we were a little suspicious of the story when we first heard it, but on the other hand, we weren’t suspicious enough that we would disregard it. And we’re going to refer for charges. In other words…so, he’s going to get charged with a crime. That’s number one. Number two is that, when people try these hoaxes, I think that does a couple things. Of course, it weakens law enforcement and, it’s somewhat cynical on my part, but people take a cynical view of people and human nature as a result of that.”
The investigation has been forwarded to the Clallam County Prosecutor’s Office.