A Brazilian lawyer is currently under investigation after allegedly spending over 13,000 Brazilian reals ($2,700) at a shopping mall, and then claiming that someone had kidnapped him and used his credit card.

On May 19th, Rodrigo Barcelos de Oliveira, a lawyer from Rio de Janeiro, stormed into the 16th police precinct of the Brazilian city to report a serious crime. He told officers that earlier that day he was driving down the Avenida das Américas road when he was approached by two armed men on motorcycles and forced to pull over in the parking lot of Barra Shopping Center, a mall in the west side of Rio. There, one of the men took his credit card and spent five hours shopping around, while the other guy held him at gunpoint. He gave the men the PIN code to the card and they used it to the limit set by the bank. The kidnappers then left with the purchased products, his jewelry, phone, wallet and wedding ring.

Photo: CardMapr/Unsplash

In light of such serious accusations, Rio de Janeiro police immediately launched an investigation, and the first thing they did was check the CCTV footage from the mall, in order to identify the man who had maxed out the lawyer’s credit card. Only, to their surprise, they spotted Rodrigo Barcelos de Oliveira casually walking through the shopping mall with his cell phone in hand and making purchases with his credit card at 11 different shops, including a supermarket, a motorcycle accessories store, an optician, a shoe store and a designer clothing store.

Photo: CCTV footage

After reporting the kidnapping to the police, the Brazilian lawyer also tried canceling all the purchases, claiming that his credit card had been stolen at gunpoint. However, the bank refused his request, because the correct PIN code had been used every single time.

Photo: Rio de Janeiro Police Department

After viewing the surveillance footage from the shopping mall, police decided that Rodrigo Barcelos de Oliveira had become a suspect, and this past Friday they conducted a search of his apartment. Unsurprisingly, all the products allegedly bought by one of the armed gunmen were found in the lawyer’s home, including a pair of sneakers, two swim trunks, a pair of designer underwear, and a motorcycle helmet.

 

Caught with his pants down, the Brazilian lawyer confessed to making up the kidnapping story, claiming that he had resorted to lying because of financial difficulties. He now faces charges of embezzlement and reporting a fake crime.