Unemployed Man Fakes His Own Kidnapping To Make His Wife Pay The $450 Ransom

36-year old unemployed Mexican builder, Eliot Garrido Guido, faked his own kidnapping so his wife would pay his $450 ransom. He enlisted the help of his friend Carlos Amilcar Martinez Reyes to stage the kidnapping and take photographs of him tied up an gagged. Mexican authorities believe that Guido was embarrassed that his banker wife earned more money than him so worked on his devious plan.

Reyes brought his friend to a derelict house, tied him up, sat him on a stool and took photographs of him as part of the fake kidnap plot.

One of the photographs showed Guido with blood on his white tee shirt and with a gag over his mouth, while the second showed him in the same position but with a hood over his head. The images were uploaded to Guido's Facebook account, with the claim that the unemployed builder had been moved 900 miles away.

According to the wife: 'When I saw the message and the photos I couldn’t believe what was happening.The kidnappers had demanded 7,000 Pesos ($450), and said my husband was being tortured. They said they would kill him if I didn’t pay up. I was seriously worried but when I contacted them they said I should leave the money at an address in Mexico City. I asked them why I should do that if they were in Playa del Carmen, and they just said do it. But it didn’t make sense so I contacted the police. When police arrived and examined the message they quickly discovered it had been sent from nearby after spotting the message’s location identifier.

A police spokesman said: 'We found them in a house about 300 metres away. They both confessed and were arrested on the spot. The men now face five years in jail.