Man Lies About Robbery Out of Fear of Wife
A Panama City man recently took desperate measures to avoid the wrath of his wife, telling the police that he had been robbed in order to avoid having to tell her he had spent too much money. The man apparently called police and reported that he had just been attacked outside a store by a person dressed in black who made off with one hundred dollars of the man’s money (at least his story wasn’t generic).
Unfortunately for the man, the surveillance tapes from the store at which he had just finished shopping showed him leaving the store and sitting in his car for a little while before coming back into the store to make the phone call, proving that he had not actually been robbed. The man admitted to police that he had concocted the story in order to avoid having to tell his wife that he had actually spent the money. He was arrested and charged with filing a false report.
Filing a false report in Tennessee not pertaining to an emergency is classified as a Class D Felony, which is punishable by up to twelve years in prison. If the false report misleads the authorities into believing there is an emergency situation which causes them to try to respond to the emergency, the offense is upgraded to a Class C felony. In the situation above, there was obviously no emergency reported, although it sounds like the man may have an emergency on his hands when he gets home, especially considering that he had to pay an extra $750 for bail.
Filing a false report is serious business in Tennessee. Although it is rarely punished to the maximum allowed, it is very likely to at least get the falsifier arrested and slapped with a considerable fine. This is especially unfavorable if the fear of having to account for $100 is what led you to file the false report in the first place.
Source: http://www.michie.com/tennessee/lpext.dll?f=templates&fn=main-h.htm&cp=tncode
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