A Las Cruces man who claimed a group of men abducted him at knifepoint has been arrested and charged with filing a false report after his co-workers refuted his story and told investigators they were all at a bar together.
Angel Ray Figueroa, 24, called his live-in girlfriend in the early morning hours of May 22, 2014 from a convenience store and told the woman he didn’t come home after work because he had been taken by three black men in a white car.
Figueroa continued the story, saying the men drove him around in the back of the car for six hours and demanded he turn over his wallet and cell phone. He also claimed the men cut him numerous times on his arms and torso, and asked his girlfriend to call law enforcement so he could make a report of the incident.
After further investigation, Doña Ana County Sheriff’s investigators learned two women that Figueroa works with reportedly picked him up following his shift on May 21 and the three went to a bar together near the corner of University Avenue and Locust.
The women said Figueroa later told them he was going to a convenience store to use the phone, but he never returned to the bar.
Investigators suspect the injuries Figueroa claimed were at the hands of his abductors were actually self-inflicted.
Figueroa was arrested Tuesday for filing a false police report and booked at the Doña Ana County Detention Center just before 7 p.m.
He posted a $2,500 secured bond two hours later.
Information from: Dona Ana County