Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
Jed Boal Reporting All that glitters is not gold. An attempted kidnapping reported earlier this week turns out to be a hoax to cover up a scam with a gold bar.
Originally police thought they were after a couple who threatened to harm a child if the mother didn't come up with quick cash, but police say tips from viewers helped them straighten out the case.
Investigators in West Valley City now know what happened and they're still looking for the same suspects, but they're not kidnappers, just con artists.
Police thought this crime, caught on bank surveillance cameras, happened just as the victim told them. She gave investigators suspect descriptions, money was gone from her account and the video seemed to support her story.
Cpt. Tom McLachlan, West Valley City Police Dept.: "What's appearing on the tapes is what she's describing to us, but in fact, it's something entirely different."
The woman reported a man and woman approached her in the grocery store parking lot. The woman said the couple robbed her and forced her to withdraw $750 from the bank inside Albertson's, or they would harm her child. A camera catches the heavy-set blonde female suspect walking into the grocery store with holding the two-year-old's hand and holding the child inside.
That story was a lie. It was actually a con in progress. A viewer saw the story and tipped police.
Cpt. Tom McLachlan, West Valley City Police Dept.: "Gave us some very specific information. We went to the victim's house and confessed she had concocted this story."
In reality, the woman with the child met the couple in the parking lot. The con artists offered the woman a bar of gold for 750-dollars, even showed her money from the sale of another bar.
She voluntarily went in to the bank and withdrew the money to buy the gold bar. When she tried to sell the bogus gold bar at a jewelry store she found out it was fake.
She made up the kidnapping story to cover the loss to her husband. Now she faces a charge of filing a false report.
Police still want to find the suspects.
Cpt. Tom McLachlan: "If they're involved with fraud, we want to shut down their fraudulent activities."
The suspects are the heavy-set blonde seen on tape. The skin on her face is discolored. She was was working with a man about 60 years old, six feet tall with gray hair.
