A 41-year-old man has been arrested in Elche after allegedly pretending to have been kidnapped for two days while he was voluntarily staying in a hotel. The National Police said he has been released while facing a charge of falsely reporting a crime, after appearing before an investigating judge.
The man went to a police station and reported that several people had confronted him as he returned home after buying building materials. He said they forced him into a vehicle, covered his face with a hood and took him to an unknown location.
According to his initial account, he was held with his hands tied and suffered several assaults and shallow cuts to different parts of his body. He also said his captors allowed him to make a brief phone call to his partner, telling him to say that he was being held at a police station.
This article was written with AI assistance and reviewed by a human editor before publication.