TRAVERSE CITY — A homeless man who said he was assaulted and robbed made the story up, police believe.
Roger Lee Klock Jr. told police three men approached him and beat him up near North Peak restaurant Feb 21. Klock now faces a criminal count of false report of a misdemeanor after police said he admitted to fabricating the story.
Klock, 22, described the three alleged assailants to police, who began looking for the suspects. Investigators tracked down all three men for interviews, but what they said didn't mesh with Klock's story.
"They gave us a completely different story, and once we confronted (Klock) with the differences in the story, he admitted he lied to us," Traverse City Police Capt. Brian Heffner said.
Klock initially said the men called him derogatory names, "jumped" him and ran off with his backpack. But the men denied assaulting him or taking his backpack, recovered later near the site of the alleged attack.
Heffner said Klock knew the men and made up the story after an argument over drugs. He was upset and got into an altercation with the men, then decided to say they assaulted and robbed him.
The incident is upsetting for police, who spent nearly two weeks on the investigation.
"In a case like this, where someone is physically assaulted and robbed on the streets of Traverse City, we drop certain things we're doing and put our resources into this effort," Heffner said. "It's frustrating in the sense that if this individual was straightforward from the onset, none of those resources would have been exhausted and we could focus our attention on actual crimes."
Klock was charged Monday and hadn't yet been arrested. Police don't know where he is. If convicted, he could be ordered to reimburse the police department for expenses related to their investigation.
Region
Police: Homeless man made up assault
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