A US man has been accused of staging his own “elaborate” kidnapping to avoid paying out lost Super Bowl bets.<\/p>\n
Robert Brandel, 60, was found tied up in his truck near Buffalo in New York state on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
He told officers he had been abducted by two armed men two days earlier – but police were suspicious that he appeared to be clean-shaven and calm.<\/p>\n
Officials now believe he was trying to get out of paying $50,000 (\u00a337,740) he owes following an online group bet.<\/p>\n
He faces charges of fraud and filing a false police report.<\/p>\n
According to Mr Brandel’s version of events, he went to pick up the two men in his truck on Monday because they were involved in a Super Bowl Squares bet with him – an online bet that sees participants enter possible scores into a grid.<\/p>\n
Mr Brandel said the men threatened him with a gun, stole $16,000 in cash and forced him to drive them around the western part of New York state for two days before tying him up and leaving him in a car park.<\/p>\n
New York State Police soon became dubious about his account.<\/p>\n
“Further investigation and interviews revealed that this elaborate story was fabricated,” they said in a statement.<\/p>\n
They added that Mr Brandel had made up some of the names in his Super Bowl Square in an attempt to take home most of the winnings himself – but had instead fallen far short.<\/p>\n
Officer James O’Callaghan told local station WKBW, an ABC affiliate, that they became suspicious because Mr Brandel was clean-shaven “around his beard” and calm when they found him, despite it apparently being the third day of his abduction.<\/p>\n
“A normal person that’s been abducted and has gone through something like that, their heart rate would be very high, they’re worried, depressed, a lot of emotions that will be bubbling up,” he added.<\/p>\n
Mr Brandel is due to appear in court later this month.<\/p>\n
The Super Bowl is a major American football tournament and was this year won by the New England Patriots.<\/p>\n
Source: bbc.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"