There Were These Two Carjackers, See . . .

CYPRESS — A Los Alamitos man told police a gripping tale last week of being kidnaped at gunpoint, thrown into the trunk of his Buick and held for nine hours by a pair of robbers.

Turns out, police said Thursday, he made the whole thing up.

“He picked up a prostitute and she took his car, and he didn’t want his significant others to know,” Cypress Police Sgt. Gene Komrosky said.

In dramatic detail, Scott William Hunter, 34, originally told police and the press that he was driving to work at 8:20 a.m. Oct. 13 when he stopped at the traffic light at Cerritos Avenue and Moody Street. Hunter said two armed men forced their way into his car, robbed him, tied him up and made him lie down on the floor of the back seat.

After about 40 minutes of driving, Hunter claimed, his attackers stopped the car, pulled him out and locked him in the trunk. He told police the two robbers then drove around for nine hours before releasing him in the parking lot of a supermarket at Lincoln Street and Beach Boulevard in Anaheim about 6:30 that evening.

“I thought I was going to die,” Hunter said at the time, in an interview with The Times. “My thoughts centered around my child. I did a lot of soul-searching. I’m going to start going to church on Sunday.”

On Thursday, Hunter did not return calls for comment.

Komrosky said that the investigation led detectives to a man who said he had purchased the missing Buick from a prostitute near the location where Hunter claimed to have been dropped off by his attackers.

“In a subsequent interview with the alleged victim,” Lt. John Schaefer said in a prepared statement, “he admitted that in fact his car had not been hijacked. Rather, after engaging the services of a prostitute, he loaned her his car and she did not return it.”

Schaefer said detectives are continuing the investigation and hope to seek prosecution of Hunter on charges of filing a false police report, a misdemeanor punishable by up to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine.

Police also will seek to recover the cost of the investigation, he said.