Do you know, offhand, if the other cases continued beyond finding the "missing" person? That is, any search for a kidnapper? Any ransom actually paid?
Okay .. I checked two of the other three. My browser choked on the Palatka story.
The two girls in Hamilton made the false report, as did the bimbo from Duluth. And whatever reaction the bimbo's false report caused, she is certainly liable for that. I'm not excusing that part of her adventure (or any other part, for that matter). But I think that teh cops who took her "I was abducted" report didn't believe it, and therefore didn't act in haste on it. Plus, they had the "victim," which is first priority in an abduction anyway.
The faked kidnapping was an extortion scheme.
The bogus kidnapping last May was designed to extort $600,000 in ransom money from the parents of Renee Lam, who failed to appear at her scheduled sentencing regarding the same case this week.
Oh, here are the facts of the Palatka case ... They are easily distingushable ;-)
She claimed she'd been kidnapped and robbed of $8,000.Investigators said she stole the money from the cash advance business where she works and gave it to a friend, Keith Williams, 26, of Palatka.
Police are still looking for Williams and the money.
Lyndeborough resident makes plea agreement in kidnap hoax
http://www.mledger.com/2005/headlines/mlheadlines120502.shtml
Steven Bromley, 35, of Lyndeborough faces up to five years in prison and up to $250,000 in fines after admitting he lied to an FBI agent during an investigation into a kidnapping hoax he orchestrated this summer.
Here is one that is a little closer:
NY businessman admits to faking abduction
http://www.rediff.com/us/2001/aug/03us4.htm
Suleman Din in New York
Bobby Kumar, a Long Island community activist and businessman, was arrested by the Nassau county police on August 1 on charges of making false statements about his alleged kidnapping.
Kumar, who came under the media's spotlight earlier last month after he claimed to have been abducted by three men from a restaurant in Syosset, New York, appeared in the first district court in Hempstead on August 2, but was released on his own surety and ordered back in court on August 20.
Kumar has been charged with two counts of making a false statement after admitting to police the night before that he made up the story of his supposed kidnapping last month.
Nassau county police told rediff.com that after three weeks of investigations, they had gathered evidence that contradicted Kumar's claims that he had been kidnapped on July 8 and held hostage for two days by the assailants.
When confronted with the evidence, Kumar, 44, broke down and admitted that he had made up the story because he wanted police to investigate a mystery newspaper, India in US, which published a number of allegations against him.
Police also confirmed the fears of Kumar's close friends, who had told rediff.com that when Kumar disappeared, they worried that he had isolated himself, and was considering suicide.
Kumar told the police that he had gone to the Nostalgia Diner in Syosset on the night of July 8 to meet a business associate. After leaving the diner, he said a van pulled up and three individuals forced him inside, threatening to kill him if he didn't.
He claimed in his statement to the police that they put a hood over his head and drove him to an unknown location, where they kept him in a small room for two days, before leaving him unharmed in Valley Stream State Park.
Lieutenant Steven Skynecki, a Nassau police detective, said the police first saw problems in Kumar's story when physical evidence did not add up, such as the fact that Kumar said he knew he was in Valley Stream Park when he saw a sign prohibiting picnics, though the sign did not say which park he was in.
Also, witnesses who saw Kumar while he was supposed to have been missing came forward, Skynecki said, including a taxi driver who said he had picked up Kumar in Flushing, Queens, and driven him out to the park the night he was found.
Skynecki said Kumar admitted that he was very disturbed by the articles in India in US, and hatched the kidnapping plot so that when police would investigate his kidnapping, they would find out who was behind the newspaper.
The newspaper, which claims to have offices in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India, alleged that Kumar and his "thugs" engaged in extortion and influence-peddling and preyed upon young women.
The articles upset Kumar so much, Skynecki said, that he became depressed to the point of contemplating suicide. Skynecki said police are still investigating the newspaper, which was reportedly printed in Queens.
At the time of publishing this report, the offices for New York Governor George Pataki, Mayor of Woodbridge Jim McGreevey, and Nassau County Executive Tom Gulotta had not yet formed any comment.
McGreevey was often seen in public with Kumar. Governor Pataki appointed Kumar to the Stony Brook Council, an advisory board to the university. Gulotta had appointed him chair of the Nassau University Medical Centre board.
Calls made to the Nassau County Republican Party, of which Kumar is vice-chairman, and to the Nassau University Medical Centre, where Kumar sits on the board, also went unanswered.
Roger Chugh, a long-time business associate of Kumar's, also wished to say nothing, stating that he hadn't seen Kumar in over two months, and knew nothing.
Legislator Lisanne Altmann (Democrat, Great Neck) said she spoke to Kumar the night of his arrest, and said he sounded very emotional. "I had a feeling something was wrong," she told rediff.com "I hope he can make it through this, it must be a terrible time for him."
Altmann said she was going to stand by Kumar, as he needed the support of his friends now, more than ever. "When you have such a high position in society, you have such a long way to fall," she said.
Kumar, a father of five, came to the United States in the early 1980s and started as a busboy in Manhattan. With little education, he was able to find success in real estate and manufacturing. He also dabbled in publishing, establishing a South Asian phone directory and two newspapers for a short while.
He is known for his fundraising skills; it is said that he has raised more than $3 million for Republican candidates.
The misdemeanour charge of making a false written statement can carry up to a year in the county jail or three years' probation.