Dude went and Jussie Smolletted.
If you missed it, on Monday we reported that a church security team in small-town Texas had stopped two men wearing "Muslim turbans" who got out of a white van with at least one rifle:
Honestly, in retrospect, the phrase "Muslim turbans" should have been a red flag, because - you guessed it - it turns out that the whole thing was apparently made up.
According to the Burnet County Sheriff's Office, a thorough investigation revealed that details of the incident were significantly 'fabricated.'
Court documents say 45-year-old Jacob Wayne Tarver, a safety team member at the Church at the Epicenter, recklessly fired three shots at a home and pond near the church, then lied to law enforcement about the incident.
What exactly happened here? The news report doesn't say and I can't speculate with any accuracy as to what was going through Tarver's brain, but judging by the fact that he shot into a pond ... I'd say he was bored and decided to fire off a few rounds without thinking that maybe it was the dumbest idea ever and also that people would hear the shots.
Tarver allegedly admitted to police that 'he made up the story' about someone walking near the church and firing 'warning shots' to scare them away. According to the affidavit, Tarver said he made up the story to 'embellish' what he did and lied to authorities at the scene, during a walkthrough investigation and during his polygraph interview.
Dude, you turned a minor offense into a national story!
Let this be a lesson, ladies and gents: If you do something stupid and you think the minor consequences can be escaped, lying can escalate those consequences and make you a national clown who faces serious jail time.
Tarver told authorities he was 'embarrassed' for not telling the truth. He was then arrested and charged with misdemeanor false report to induce an emergency response, felony tampering or fabricating physical evidence and felony deadly conduct.
The local sheriff said it best:
'It really, it affects the community as much as anything,' Burnet County Sheriff Calvin Boyd said. 'There's enough going on in the world - we don't have to have people making things up.'
There really are wolves out there, but when you cry wolf to save your own skin/reputation, you make it that much harder for people to take the next real crime seriously.
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