CENTER TWP — State police Tuesday charged a convenience store employee for lying about being robbed last month.

Corey A. Melhorn, 21, of Butler Township claimed that just before 2 a.m. Sept. 15 he was robbed at knife-point behind the Kwik Fill, according to court documents.

Melhorn reported that the robber took $200 from him.

He recounted the purported robbery to store officials and troopers.

But later, while giving a written statement to police, he “rescinded his report and stated that he had lost $200 and that he was not robbed,” documents said.

He told investigators, according to a police affidavit, that the phony story “was the only way he was not going to get into trouble with his father.”

Investigators eventually reviewed store surveillance video that proved there was no holdup that night, police said.

Instead, the affidavit noted, at the time of the supposed crime, the video showed “the defendant exited his friend’s vehicle and in 25 seconds was backing out of his parking space and leaving the Kwik Fill.”

Melhorn is charged with unsworn falsification to authorities and false reports to law enforcement authorities, both misdemeanors.

A preliminary hearing is set Nov. 13 at the office of District Judge Lewis Stoughton in Chicora.