A man was found running without shoes in Gothenburg and stated that he had been kidnapped while he was out on a journalistic mission.
In fact, he had been partying with climate activists.
– There was no reason to believe that it was not a sharp situation, says Hans-Jörgen Ostler, press contact for the police in the West region.
Early on Friday morning, a call came in to the police in Gothenburg. A 30-year-old foreign man, posing as a journalist, claimed he had been kidnapped.
According to the man, he must have been on a journalistic mission when he was abducted by the people he was supposed to interview.
– We take all events like this seriously and there were many police patrols looking for the man, says Hans-Jörgen Ostler, press contact for the police in the West region.
In the telephone conversation with the police, the man did not know where he was. A patrol found the foreign journalist running along Luftvärnsvägen in Gothenburg – without shoes.
– The man sounded shocked when we spoke to him on the phone. There was no reason to believe that it wouldn’t be sharp mode, he says.
The police therefore began an investigation into what the man must have been exposed to.
Partying with climate activists
At 8 o’clock in the morning, the man stated something else in a conversation with the police.
The man then told that he had been to a party with climate activists and that he felt unsafe for a short while with the people he was with at the party.
After the man changed his story, he claimed he no longer felt he had been the victim of a crime.
Shortly afterwards, the police announced that they had closed the case.