A man is being accused of staging a robbery at his own Miami jewelry store, where he claimed $80,000 worth of gold bars were stolen and he was attacked.
Levon Papikyan, 46, faces a misdemeanor charge of filing a false report after he allegedly faked an armed robbery at Deroso Jewelry on February 21, Miami police said.
Two clients gave Papikyan four gold bars to sell for them earlier that day, but Papikyan told police someone attacked him in his store with pepper spray and stole the gold bars.
Throughout the investigation, detectives say Papikyan's story kept changing, and he was eventually arrested.
"I think grand theft would be a natural if it turns out he was the one who took the four bars of gold, it's a lot of money and it seems he's making a mockery of our justice system," said private investigator David Bolton, who is working with the victims to look for the missing gold bars.
Papikyan has since bonded out of jail and was back at the store Monday. When asked by NBC 6 if he faked the robbery and lied to police, Papikyan said "No" and walked away.
Attorney information was not available.
