False report

On September 13th, an armed robbery occurred at the Wells Fargo ATM located at N. 65th St. and Cotner Boulevard. We had good leads on that case from the outset, and it was cleared by two arrests later in the week. Before that occurred though, clear across town, another robbery connected to a Wells Fargo ATM was reported on September 16th. The victim said he had gone to the ATM at S. 70th St. and Pioneers Blvd., where he made a $260 withdrawal. As he turned into his neighborhood nearly a mile away, another vehicle bumped his car from behind. He got out to check the damage. The suspect brandished a pistol and relieved him of his rent money.

While the investigating officers certainly took it seriously, I thought this crime was fishy from the outset. It just sounded too much like an urban legend story to me: too convenient, too contrived. What’s this 35 year-old doing getting cash from an ATM to pay his rent in the middle of the month? He's living with his parents, and they won't accept a check? When, in my entire career, have I heard of a bump-and-rob in Lincoln? (Answer: never.) Of all the places to pull such a crime, why select a residential street with plenty of houses and streetlights? How many stranger robberies occur so early in the evening? My suspicion was that the victim had seen the news about the ATM robbery earlier in the week, and concocted a plausible story to explain his inability to pay the rent.

I told Det. Marty Fehringer the next morning that we should check the victim’s account activity at the bare minimum and see if he in fact made such a withdrawal. I imagine that in the back of his mind he was thinking, “Good idea, Capt. Obvious,” but Marty’s a gentleman, and allowed me my moment as amateur detective. The check of bank records revealed no such transaction occurred, and in a subsequent interview, the victim’s story collapsed. He had left the state for a while, so a few weeks passed before we were able to contact him over the weekend and cite him for false information.

One of the most annoying things about this case is the victim’s choice of his imaginary assailant: a black man armed with a pistol. I’m sick and tired of liars making up phantom suspects for non-existent crimes. There are plenty of genuine crimes to go around, and we have more than enough work to do without chasing after someone’s racist stereotypes.