By Pete Soyer
A Havre man told police he'd been robbed at gunpoint in his own home. But police later decided his story was bogus.
The man called 911 on Tuesday afternoon and said he'd been robbed after he returned home from a walk to a gas station, police said. The caller told police he found a man in his bedroom and that the man pointed a gun at him and demanded money, police said. The caller said he had $300 under the cushions of his couch, so he gave the gunman that.
Havre police officers responded to the man's home in the 100 block of Second Street shortly before 3 p.m.
Four police officers, one Burlington Northern Santa Fe police officer and three deputies from the Hill County Sheriff's Department began looking for a gunman wearing a baseball cap, a tan flannel shirt with a blue-and-white striped shirt underneath, blue jeans and combat boots. The caller also said the man was skinny, but had a big belly, a bushy mustache and dark, shoulder-length hair.
The caller fabricated the entire story, police Capt. Mike Barthel said.
Barthel said officers discovered the call was bogus because "things weren't adding up." The caller admitted fabricating the story in an interview with officers.
A police report of the incident was forwarded to the city attorney, who will decide if the man should be charged with fabricating a report to police, Barthel said. A decision will be made within a week, he said.
