A woman running for mayor in the South Carolina city of Sumter in late November faces criminal charges for staging her own kidnapping and beating as she sought to get "publicity, sympathy, and votes in the November election", local police said.
She even live-streamed the stunt, carried out with the help of 34-year-old Christopher Eaddy, on Facebook, in a bid to rack up strings of views and likes.
Belcher, 29, who has been promoting herself as the first "black female candidate" to ever run for mayor of the city, reported to police that a man was trying to rob her, having knocked her car windows out, assaulted, and kidnapped her.
She claimed she didn't know the man, with crews taking her to the hospital and then releasing her.
However, investigators later found she had been in contact with Eady prior to the "attack" and the duo had planned it well in advance.
Belcher, who admitted plotting the incident in advance, is charged with conspiracy and filing a false police report. Her accomplice faces conspiracy charges. Belcher is currently being held on a $10,000 bond, whereas Eaddy got a $5,000 bond and has since been released.
Investigators accused Belcher of trying to smear a political opponent during the fake attack, and conspiring to smear other candidates ahead of the election.
"This was simply an effort to create disorder and discontent in our community for personal gain", Police Chief Russell Roark commented, pointing to police and emergency crews operating on a false call:
"As a result, a valuable number of resources, including personnel, man-hours of the police department as well as local medical professionals, were wasted based on false information".