'Victim' Of Cleveland Armed Robbery Admits He Lied

A Mannford man, who claimed to have been the victim of an armed robbery outside of a Cleveland business, has admitted he fabricated the whole story, police said.

As first reported on NewsOn6.com, Kevin Clanton, 42, originally told police on March 4 that he was robbed at gunpoint while parked on Broadway Street to drop off a loan payment in Continental Credit's night depository.

Clanton has since confessed to Cleveland police there was not an armed robbery at all; he simply didn't have the money to pay his loan. Clanton told investigators he thought the claim of an armed robbery would give him more time to come up with the funds.

"We're not just going to write up a report and that be the end of it," Cleveland Police Sergeant Robert Stephens said.

"We investigate each report because we want to make sure we get those breaking the law off the streets. But if our investigation indicates that there is more to the story, we'll keep digging. In this case, we found out it was all a lie."

Cleveland Police this week filed an affidavit with the Pawnee County District Attorney's Office for an arrest warrant in hopes that Clanton will be charged with filing a false police report, Stephens said.

At the alleged crime scene, Clanton told Stephens a white man and Hispanic man teamed up to pull him out of his vehicle, pointed a gun at him and stole his wallet, including $300 in cash and the money order he was going to use to pay his loan. He also claimed the men clubbed him in the back, threatened him not to call police and sped off on Oklahoma 64.

Clanton reported that "a revolver was pointed at him, and he was told to give them his wallet or they would shoot him," Stephens told NewsOn6.com on March 4.

Clanton also gave police a lengthy description of the alleged robbers, including height, weight, clothing and even went as far to say the white man had a tattoo of a woman on his left forearm. He told investigators the getaway vehicle was blue with a green driver's door.

Stephens said the department has wasted hours investigating Clanton's claim of armed robbery after "a lot of red flags went up" at the alleged crime scene.

Clanton initially reported he had been "clubbed in the back," but Stephens said there was hardly a mark left and Clanton didn't need any medical treatment. Aside from the "fishy details" that Clanton was there to make a payment and couldn't do so because his money was stolen, Stephens also said that, within minutes of the alleged robbery, Pawnee County sheriff's deputies had shut down all of the highway junctions leading out of Cleveland.

3/4/2012 Related Story: Armed Robbery Has Cleveland Police Searching For Two Men

"We knew suspects wouldn't have been able to get anywhere, and they would have been caught by the roadblocks," Stephens said.

Cleveland is about 40 miles west of Tulsa and is bordered by Keystone Lake and the Arkansas River. It is a small town of approximately 3,500 residents, many of whom rate it as an overall safe community, Stephens said.

"A lot of folks here don't even lock their windows and doors," Stephens said.

"There not many major, violent crimes here. There are the occasional teenagers who do some vandalism, but really, this is a quiet, little town. An armed robbery is certainly possible anywhere, but it is not at all typical in Cleveland. It's a shame that something like this has caused people to not feel safe."

The "robbery hoax," as Stephens put it, has even made customers of Continental Credit question whether they should use the company's night depository.

"It's absolutely safe," he said. "This whole thing is unfortunate."

When contacted by NewsOn6.com, a representative for Continental Credit said it was company policy not to give statements to the media.