The owner of a jewelry store in Miami, Florida was arrested after police say he filed a false robbery report. Levon Papikyan, who owns Deroso Jewelry, claimed that he was pepper sprayed by an armed assailant who stole four gold bars which were worth around $80,000.
The bars were given to Papikyan earlier that morning by Argentine businessman Juan Leiva and another client.
“It is serious money that I lost, and now I’m trying to recover it, if possible,” Leiva told NBC6. "I thought that in Miami I could be sure there wouldn't be these kinds of problems. But I was wrong."
Investigators realized something was wrong as Papikyan's story kept changing.
“At this point, we can say he lied, and we did charge him legitimately with filing a false police report,” Miami police spokeswoman Kenia Fallat told the news outlet.
Papikyan bonded out of jail and is awaiting a hearing on the misdemeanor charge.
Leiva hired a private investigator to track down the gold bars who believes that Papikyan should be charged with grand theft if he was behind the robbery.
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