Police Search For 3rd Suspect In Fake Kidnapping Plot

Authorities are searching for a third suspect in an alleged fake kidnapping plot that cost Pittsburgh police $10,000 in ransom money.

Two men whom police accused of being at the center of the plot surrendered Thursday.

VIDEO: Police: Man Accused In Kidnapping Hoax Surrenders

Dominic Fields, 23, Wexford, surrendered to authorities on Thursday. Another suspect, Anthony "Tooth" Hines, 25, turned himself earlier in the day.

"I’m innocent. Is that what y’all want to hear?” Fields said.

"I'm innocent, man. I'm innocent. I'm innocent. Free me. Free Tooth," Hines said to a Channel 11 News photographer.

Police said Fields' father, David Fields, received a call Sunday demanding $50,000 for his son's safe return. At first, David Fields said he thought it was a joke, but he contacted police after he and other family members couldn't reach Dominic Fields.

Assistant Police Chief Maurita Bryant said the threat was believable.

"(The suspects) were getting more and more agitated, and more and more desperate, and they said they were going to kill him,” she said Tuesday.

Police decided to deliver a partial payment of $10,000 in a package that contained a tracking device. Police typically don't pay ransoms but, Bryant said, "We didn't feel we could take a chance. What if you don't do anything and someone is killed? Money is not worth someone's life."

Police took the money to a drop-off along Frankstown Road in Homewood, where two men picked it up and then eluded a state police helicopter and SWAT officers.

Police searched an apartment and found the package, but the cash and the tracking device were missing.

While David Fields was at police headquarters on Sunday night, police said his son called and admitted he hadn’t been kidnapped and didn’t realize the police would be called.

Police said Dominic Fields later called officers, saying he faked the kidnapping to get money for debts. There is no word on Hines' involvement in the case.

The cash and a third suspect are still missing, police said.

"We haven't recovered the missing money,” Bryant said. ”Investigators are still trying to develop additional evidence so we can make additional arrests in this case and possibly recover the funds."

Police said Hines and Fields face theft and conspiracy charges.

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