Georgia police said that a video of a robbery at a gas station was staged by the worker and arrested him as well as the alleged assailant.
Police told WSB-TV that the two men had orchestrated the fake robbery at the Shell Station on Buford Highway in Duluth on Jan. 21.
Police said they initially investigated the matter as an armed robbery until the victim’s story began to unravel. When police reviewed the security video, they said that the assailant appeared to fake-punch the worker identified as Raj Patel, and the victim seemed to fall in a very controlled manner.
After recovering from the alleged beating, Patel also took nearly 30 minutes to call police.
“The video is crucial,” said Cpl. Ted Sadowski.
Police said that an officer encountered another worker of the gas station by their dumpster with a large amount of money in his pockets that evening.
“You got cash falling out of your pocket,” said the officer to Danny Curtis.
“Yeah, I got cash, yeah,” Curtis responded in the exchange also captured on video.
Police claim that other surveillance video from outside captured Curtis changing his clothing before police talked to him. When police confronted Curtis, he allegedly confessed that he had faked the robbery and that Patel had told him what to do. Police said they stole $5,000 from the cash register.
Patel and Curtis were charged with felony conspiracy over the incident. Curtis was refused a bond because of previous arrests and was booked into the Gwinnett County jail.
“It obviously takes a lot of resources to put something together and put a closure on this,” said Sadowski.
“Academy Awards shouldn’t be given on this one,” he added.
Here’s a local news report about the arrest:
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