Often times stories take drastic turns.
Monday night, Lyon County officials told us they were searching for two highway robbery suspects outside of Larchwood, Iowa. The two allegedly stole the debit card of a driver acting as a good Samaritan who stopped to help them on the side of the road.
Turns out there's a twist: only one man is involved. He is Aaron Abels of Larchwood, Iowa.
Lyon County officials say Abels made up the entire story to law enforcement while they were investigating.
Officials tell me today there was no roadside robbery, no stolen debit card and no good Samaritan.
We sat down again this afternoon with Lyon County's Chief Deputy Sheriff Stewart Van Der Stoep. He says it only took a couple interviews with Abels to realize his story was all a little bizarre.
Early Monday morning, he reported his debit card was stolen by two people he stopped to help on the side of the highway. He even gave an exact location just a few miles outside of Larchwood.
Officials tracked down his debit card, found it's most recent activity at a Sioux Falls ATM and surveillance photos of Abels using the card.
During a second interview, when asked why he was the one in the photos, Abels claimed he had been kidnapped and forced to withdraw money from his own account while the alleged kidnappers were in the car. But the photos showed no one else in the car.
Abels admitted to law enforcement during a third interview that he made the story up.
"I find it amazing that someone would come up with such a story and then report it to the police and have this much time that officers spent investigating to find out everything was false. What possesses someone to do that?" Chief Deputy VanDerStoep said.
According to Van Der Stoep, Abels was trying to cover up some money problems he was dealing with at home. He's charged with two counts of false reporting to a law officer, which is punishable by up to one year in jail.
He was released from jail after paying a $1,000 bond.
