DECATUR, Ala. (AP) – The young man had a compelling story: His father died in the 9/11 terror attacks, his mother had just one leg, he had no other living relatives and he was stranded in Alabama with no way to make the nearly 600-mile (965-kilometer) trip home to Indiana after being robbed.
Moved to help, police officers from six agencies gave him food, money and a connection for a ride back north.
It was only later, police said, that they discovered much of the man’s tale was fiction: His name was fake, both his parents are alive, his mom has both legs, and there were several other relatives. But no charges are planned after what police described as a good-faith effort to help someone in need went awry.
“Regardless of the situation, he was stranded and didn’t have anybody. In that regard, we were happy to help get him him back up there,” Mike Swafford, a spokesman for the Morgan County Sheriff’s Office, said Wednesday.
The sheriff’s office, which initially shared the story on Facebook, said a man claiming to be Willinaus Bolin, 23, of Indianapolis told police in Montgomery that he was on the way to Florida with friends when they pushed him out of the car, robbed him of money he made mowing lawns and left him with nothing over the Fourth of July weekend.