Cheating Husbands Profit From Rampant Crime
Thu May 30,12:11 PM ET

BRASILIA, Brazil (Reuters) - Adulterous husbands in Brazil are reaping the benefits of rampant crime, finding what seemed the perfect alibi for their steamy extra-marital sessions by spinning a story of being kidnapped.

But not all can pull the wool over the police's eyes.

Police in Brasilia said on Wednesday they busted two men for false alibis and a third is under investigation after they pinned jaunts with other women on thugs and thieves.

Rogerio Carvalho Coelho, 22, and Flavio Damiao de Sousa, 33, told police they were seized by armed men, forced to surrender their ATM cards and PIN numbers and stuffed into the back of cars -- the flash or "lightning" mode of kidnapping that has surged across Brazil.

An anti-kidnapping police squad, trained at London's Scotland Yard and by the FBI, soon uncovered the hoax.

"Flavio went out for some fun with friends and some women and only came home at nine o'clock the next morning," said Miguel Lucena, a civil police spokesman in Brasilia. "Rogerio was gone for two days, off with other women too."

Under Brazilian law, they could get one to six months in jail for filing a false report, although judges prefer to keep minor offenders out of prison with alternative sentences.

Police in Brazil's capital have registered 30 flash kidnappings this year. In another hoax case, a 21-year-old female student lied to her parents that she had been kidnapped, forcing them to pay a 3,000 reais ($1,190) ransom.

"Police found her off in Sao Paulo spending the money with her boyfriend," Lucena said."

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