JOYCE — Clallam County Sheriff’s deputies have forwarded a case of alleged false reporting of a crime to the prosecuting attorney’s office.
Prosecutors will decide if charges will be brought against the unidentified man who, deputies said, falsely claimed to have been robbed by the side of the road on state Highway 112 the day after Christmas.
On Dec. 30, deputies received an anonymous tip that the man had fabricated the report of being robbed, said Sgt. Shaun Minks of the Clallam County Sheriff’s Office, in a press release issued Friday.
During a follow-up interview, the man said he had lied about the robbery and had falsely reported the crime because he had financial issues, Minks said.
Deputies were called to the area of milepost 49 on Highway 112 at about 8:06 p.m. There a man told them he had just been robbed.
He said that after his vehicle broke down, two other men stopped behind him to offer assistance. When he told them he didn’t need it and turned to walk back to his vehicle, he was struck in the back of the head, he told deputies.
Both men assaulted him, he said, according to Minks, and one ripped his wallet from his pocket and stole his cash before dropping the wallet and fleeing west on Highway 112.
The man told deputies that one of this assailants was in his mid-20s and the other possibly in his 40s; one had a long beard. He described them both as looking like “mountain men,” Minks said, and driving a midsize pickup, possibly a Ford. He did not know the color.
“The Clallam County Sheriff’s Office would like to stress the importance of this falsely reported incident and the impact it had on deputies and resources,” Minks said.
