Teenager Fakes Own Kidnapping, But Plan Goes Terribly Wrong

July 21, 2013— -- Mexican police have arrested a teenager who faked her own kidnapping so that she could get money to go on vacations with her ex-boyfriend and four other friends.

Nineteen year-old Arely Soto actually wanted her parents to believe that criminals had kidnapped her so that they would pay her friends a $20,000 ransom for her "release."

To get away with this, Arely simply disappeared from her home in the state of Veracruz one day and had her friends call her family, posing as bloodthirsty criminals.

It's a believable story in Mexico, where kidnappings are still a common crime. But things went bust when Arely's parents suspected something was amiss and contacted local police.

Mexican newspaper Zocalo reports that Arely's parents agreed to make the ransom. Police then arrested the teens as they drove to the town where they were going to collect the money.

The teens promptly ratted out Arely, who was found by police in the neighboring state of Hidalgo before her friends were arrested.

Arely told cops that she had been threatened with a knife and was beaten, but once her friends confessed to their role, she allegedly acknowledged that it was all a scam.

Arely and her friends will probably spend some time in jail. They have also reminded us, once again, that real life crimes are sometimes more absurd than those that happen in Hollywood films.