MEMPHIS, Tenn. — One of the three reported postal worker robberies has turned out to be a hoax, police said, landing the alleged victim behind bars.

Cortney Harris, 37, told police he was delivering mail Friday around 11:20 a.m. in South Memphis when a man came up behind him and threatened to shoot him if he didn’t hand over everything he had. Harris told police he forked over $40.

Transfixed neighbors watched Friday as police and postal inspectors scoured the Benford-Joubert intersection looking for witnesses and evidence.

“I mean, they were everywhere. I’ve never seen them go door-to-door,” resident Gloria Holmes said.

But Holmes, a former postal worker herself, said she still had doubts about Harris’ story from the start.

Police said he eventually admitted to making up the robbery, but they didn’t say why.

A woman at Harris’ Raleigh home shut the door as WREG tried asking about a possible motive. WREG