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Robbery call on Clara brings heavy police response, but victim’s account raises investigators’ doubts
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After a recent rash of violent armed robberies in Uptown New Orleans, report of another on Clara Street on Wednesday afternoon drew the rapid response of nearly a dozen officers, but the alleged victim then withdrew his account, raising investigators’ suspicions as to what actually happened in the first place. The robbery was first reported shortly after noon on Clara near Valence, just a few blocks away from Oschner Baptist Medical Center. Patrol officers swept through the area looking for a suspect while detectives began interviewing the alleged victim and his friend, but the two gave differing accounts of the robbery, “which raised our suspicions that a robbery actually occurred,” said Lt. Mike Montalbano of the NOPD Second District investigative unit. Detectives took the two men back to the Second District station for further questioning, and there the alleged victim became irate and told the detectives to “just write my report,” Montalbano said. When the police told him they would investigate the robbery and attempt to confirm his account, Montalbano said he said he no longer wanted to talk to police, and he was taken back to Clara Street.