Rob-sex attack hoax
Crime faked in bid for immigrant visas
As many as 10 people faked a violent robbery at a Washington state fast-food restaurant in a stunning bid to score special immigration visas reserved for victims of crimes, authorities revealed Monday.
Cops in the city of SeaTac — between Seattle and Tacoma — said they were called to a Bob’s Burgers & Teriyakis on Oct. 19 and told that two Samoan men stormed into the eatery at around 9 p.m., tied patrons up and demanded money at gunpoint.
The alleged witnesses said the masked bandits sexually assaulted two women in the restaurant before fleeing in a brown 2005 Ford pickup truck belonging to one of the alleged victims.
Cops launched a massive manhunt, but things began to unravel when they found the victims’ stories didn’t line up, the Seattle Times reported.
Then two of the people involved in the hoax made a shocking confession: The whole thing was an immigration scam, they said.
“Today, I can confirm to you it was all a lie,” King County Sheriff Mitzi Johanknecht told reporters at a televised press conference Monday.
“Every employee present that evening, every customer, participated in a deliberate hoax,” she said. “This hoax should be an affront to all of us.”
Johanknecht said participants in the scheme hoped to land U visas — which are set aside for some illegal immigrants who are the victims of crimes and who help aid police investigations, according to US Citizenship and Immigration Services.
It remains unclear who among the 10 suspects — who range in age from 38 to 51 — sought the visas and where they came from, police said.
But police believe the six “customers,” the eatery’s manager and an employee, and the two alleged robbers were all in on the scam together, the Seattle Times reported — although they have yet to make any arrests.
Cops said the phony heist ended up being a “tremendous waste of resources” for them.
“Not only is false reporting a crime, but in this case concocting a violent takeover crime where the suspects were allegedly armed sets up the potential for some really bad things,” Johanknecht said.
“Our deputies and detectives were looking for that truck,” she added. “What would’ve happened if we were to stop the driver thinking that they were a suspect in a very violent crime?”
SeaTac City Manager Carl Cole added that the phony sex-attack claim “does harm to all true victims of sexual assault.”
Johanknecht said her office is meeting with local prosecutors to determine next steps in the case.
Sgt. Ryan Abbott, a spokesman for the King County Sheriff ’s Office, told The Post on Tuesday that no additional information was being released while the investigation continues — but added that the probe could be completed by week’s end.