Georgia State Police said the video of the gas station robbery was shot by the employee, and he and the alleged perpetrator have been arrested.
police told WSB TV Two men allegedly orchestrated a fake robbery at a Shell station on Buford Highway in Duluth on January 21st.
Police initially said they were investigating the incident as an armed robbery until the victim’s story was resolved. Police reviewed security video and said the assailant appeared to fake punch the worker, identified as Raj Patel, and the victim appeared to fall in a very controlled manner.
After Patel recovered from the beating, it took nearly 30 minutes to call police.
“Video is extremely important,” said Corporal. Ted Sadowski.
That night, police said, an officer encountered another employee near a gas station dumpster with a large sum of money in his pocket.
“Cash fell out of your pocket,” the officer said to Danny Curtis.
“Yeah, I got the cash, yeah,” Curtis said in the exchange, which was also captured on video.
Police allege that another surveillance video from outside showed Curtis changing his clothes before police spoke to him. When police questioned Mr Curtis, he allegedly confessed to having staged the robbery and that Mr Patel had told him what to do. Police said $5,000 was stolen from the cash register.
Patel and Curtis were charged with felony conspiracy in connection with the incident. Curtis was denied bail due to his past arrests and was booked into the Gwinnett County Jail.
“It’s obviously going to take a lot of resources to put something together and put an end to this,” Sadowski said.
“This film should not be awarded an Academy Award,” he added.
Here are local reports about the arrest:
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