Remember the guy who said he was pulled over on Route 262 in Augusta County last week by three armed black guys with masks?
Yeah, didn’t happen.
And now the man, Sammie Lee Mason Jr., 38 of Craigsville, has been booked for filing a false police report.
This ending to this story wasn’t obvious from the moment the story hit our email inbox.
No, not at all.
The update to the story comes today from the Augusta County Sheriff’s Office, which had first brought attention to Mason’s allegations on Feb. 2.
Mason had told authorities that three black males, wearing masks, one with dreadlocks, stopped a white Honda in front of his vehicle as he was exiting Route 262 at its intersection with Old Greenville Road at 12:18 p.m. the afternoon of Feb. 2.
Mason reported that the suspects brandished a firearm and demanded cash.
Investigators, in the course of looking into the story, began to notice some discrepancies in the version of events offered by the reporting party, according to a Facebook post from the Augusta County Sheriff’s Office.
“After a significant amount of time and resources were expended in the pursuit of these alleged robbers, it became clear to investigators that this robbery did not happen. When confronted with the evidence by a member of my staff and the Commonwealth’s Attorney, the reporting party initially stuck to his false story. Ultimately, however, he admitted to having made it up entirely. This alleged robbery never happened,” Sheriff Donald Smith said.
“The Augusta County Sheriff’s Office treated this case with urgency, as the allegations were so serious. We are aware that some in the community were placed in fear that something similar would happen to them. Others were afraid they would be viewed as potential suspects,” Smith said. “Ultimately, ACSO, in partnership with the Office of the Commonwealth’s Attorney, was able to determine there was no truth to this alleged robbery. It is extremely unfortunate that this false information affected our community in a negative way, and frightened so many of our citizens. There is no current threat to our community.”
Just a quick thought to offer here: the sheriff’s office could have vetted this one a little better before going public with it in the first place.
That thought is offered in the line of recognizing that local law enforcement agencies not infrequently wait days, sometimes weeks, before going public with details in other alleged crimes.
Was this story treated differently because it involved a guy saying he had been held up by three armed, masked black guys, one of them with dreads?
You have to wonder.
No doubt we won’t get any public updates from the authorities on the fate of Mason from here on out.
This could have, and should have, been handled better.
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Chris Graham
