After losing a sizable sum of money while visiting a casino in Singapore, a Chinese gambler resorted to extreme means. Liu Changjian, 33, is charged with fabricating his own abduction to scare his family into paying a fake ransom of about S$5,550 (US$4,200).
According to The South China Morning Post, Liu was supposed to return to China on March 6 but did not show up. Soon later, an unidentified sender on the Chinese social messaging platform WeChat sent messages to Lui's aunt, Madam Liu Ya Bo, stating that Liu had been abducted.
Pictures of Liu's travel documents were sent by the alleged kidnapper, indicating that the nephew was in a precarious situation. Liu's family reported the claimed kidnapping to Singapore police instead of making restitution.
It was strikingly simple to find Liu, for someone who had supposedly been abducted. Within three hours of the ransom demand, police discovered him hanging out in the Marina Bay Sands, "safe and well."
Lui was accused of trying to cheat, and if found guilty, she may spend the next ten years behind bars. This Monday, he entered a not guilty plea via video link in a Singaporean court.
Self-Initiated Abduction
Fake kidnappings are strangely more often than you might imagine. A New York State man was detained in 2019 after fabricating his own kidnapping in order to evade forfeiting $50,000 in Super Bowl wagers.
In an attempt to increase his chances of winning, 60-year-old Robert Brandel set up an online Super Bowl squares pool and put up a lot of fictitious names on the squares. When none of his numbers came up, the plan fell apart and he was unable to pay the winners.
Brandel reasoned that dressing himself in gaffer tape inside his truck and claiming he'd been robbed would be a reasonable course of action. When he told investigators that his captivity ordeal lasted three days, they got dubious, but that morning, he seemed to have shaved.
The Brazilian soccer player Somália reported in 2011 that he had been robbed of cash and jewels after being carjacked at gunpoint. This was eventually shown to be untrue by security footage. It transpired that the midfield player, who was a member of the elite squad Botafogo, was just tardy to training and required a strong justification.