Man fakes kidnapping ‘to avoid girlfriend’

A man in the US went to the extraordinary lengths of faking his own kidnapping in a bid to avoid an argument with his girlfriend.

Rahmell Pettway, 36, told the police he had been away from home for two weeks and staged the kidnapping to give himself the perfect excuse with his partner.

However, detectives who found him in the street noticed the duct tape used to tie him up was still hanging from his own wrists.

One source from the law enforcement department told the New York Post: "He's a total moron. It was a pathetic attempt to pull the wool [over] her eyes."

Mr Pettway initially claimed he could not remember what had happened, but soon told a story of abduction by two men in a blue minivan.

Authorities soon grew suspicious of his account of events and he later confessed to making the whole thing up to avoid a domestic argument.