A man who claimed he was stabbed for “looking like a neo-Nazi” has admitted he made the story up.
Joshua Witt told police he was attacked outside a restaurant in Denver earlier this month and posted pictures of his injured hand to Facebook.
He wrote: “Sooooo apparently I look like a neo-nazi and got stabbed for it... luckily I put my hands up to stop it so he only stabbed my hand... please keep in mind there was no conversation between me and this dude I was literally just getting out of my car.”
He alleged his attacker likened his “side-fade” haircut to those associated with white supremacists.
The 26-year-old told the New York Post: “All I hear is, ‘Are you one of them neo-Nazis?’ as this dude is swinging a knife up over my car door at me.
“I threw my hands up and once the knife kind of hit, I dived back into my car and shut the door and watched him run off west, behind my car.”
The US Navy boatswain’s mate described his assailant as a black man in his mid 20s, wearing a green shirt and blue trousers.
Witt reported the attack, but when officers checked CCTV of the area, they found no sign of the incident. And further scrutiny of revealed Witt leaving a sporting goods shop where he had bought a small knife.
When police confronted Witt with their information, he admitted accidentally cutting himself with the knife he had just bought as he tried to remove it from its packaging, the Denver Post reports.
Sheridan police chief Mark Campbell told HuffPost Witt had made up the story because he had been worried his insurance wouldn’t cover treatment for the cut if he admitted it was self-inflicted.
Witt (whose mugshot shows him with considerably longer hair now) was arrested last week and could face up to a year in jail and a fine of $2,650 if convicted of false reporting.
