It was the case of the phantom pickpocket in Freeland.

A 29-year-old Oak Harbor man called 911 to report that someone snatched an envelope with $1,200 in insurance money from his pocket and ran out the door of the Short Stop Texaco along Highway 525 about mid-morning this past Saturday.

An Island County sheriff’s deputy investigated, and reported that the man later found the money at home.

“It never happened,” Sheriff’s Det. Ed Wallace said Tuesday. “He thought it happened, but it didn’t.”

The man said the money was from an insurance company to get his vehicle repaired, Wallace said.