Spanish woman fakes kidnapping to test husband: police

MADRID — Spanish police have detained a woman who faked her own kidnapping to test whether her husband would pay ransom, sending him a photograph of herself with bound hands and feet, police said Monday.

The man received the photo on his mobile phone from someone claiming to be one of the kidnappers along with a text message demanding a ransom of 20,000 euros (26,000 dollars) for her release, they said in a statement.

The ransom request was repeated in later text messages as well as warnings that the man not go to police, which he ignored.

Police launched a search and spotted her car, which they followed to a shopping mall in the town of Gandia on the Mediterranean coast.

"The woman, who was traveling alone and was in perfect health, was the supposed victim of the kidnapping," the police statement said.

At first she told police that she had been released that morning but later confessed to faking her abduction "to find out what her husband would be willing to do for her".

In 2008 a Spanish court sentenced a woman to three-year-a-half years in prison after finding her guilty of extortion by faking her children's kidnapping seven times.