'Real Housewife' Michaele Salahi Kidnapped a Week Before 'Comeback' Party: Another Hoax?

The husband of The Real Housewives of D.C. star Michaele Salahi is insisting his wife has been kidnapped -- but the police aren't buying what he's selling.

Tareq Salahi tweeted an alert -- via his publicist -- that his wife was missing due to a suspected kidnapping, and advised D.C.-area residents to be on the lookout for the beanpole blonde, who was last seen wearing a Baby Blue T-shirt dress with a silver glitter dolphin on the front and black thongs, according to one of the tweets.

In addition to the Twitter broadcast, Salahi gave a statement to TMZ:

It is our belief as of last night, that Michaele Salahi may have been kidnapped or abducted and being held under duress and forced to tell persons, including authorities she is okay, the statement read.

We are asking the public to please be on the look out for her, and if found please contact the authorities and please approach her and contact the authorities to intervene and that she may be forced to say she is okay, when in fact she is not and being held under possible abduction.

Salahi claims his wife called him Monday night -- after missing a hair appointment earlier that day -- from a strange Oregon-based phone number and said she was going to visit her mother -- a visit that he mother said never happened.

Michaele's manager Gina Rodriguez told the New York Daily News that Tareq said his wife's voice sounded very mechanical and that she sounded like she was in a tunnel.

But Tariq Salahi was not the only person to get a call from Michaele: The 'Real Housewife' apparently called the Warren County Sheriff's Department and let them know she was fine, and said she was dealing with family issues.

The Salahis have a history of contrived stunts and disturbing attention-seeking behavior. Before she appeared on The Real Housewives of D.C., Salahi somehow managed to land a spot on the Washington Redskins alumni cheerleading squad -- even though she had never been on the team.

And of course, there was the White House gatecrashing incident which was filmed for The Real Housewives of D.C. There, a sari-clad Michaele and her husband somehow managed to get inside the White House state dinner -- and be photogrpahed with the President -- even though they did not have invitations to the event, and were not on the guest list.

The couple has repeatedly been in the news for financial problems -- though Tariq Salahi maintains the couple is doing fine, money-wise.

On Sunday, Sept. 18, items from the Salahi's Oasis Vineyards will be sold in a bankruptcy auction. The company filed for bankruptcy in 2008 and Salahi has since launched Oasis Winery -- which is not to be confused with Oasis Vineyards. Salahi has put some effort into controlling the press coverage of the bankruptcy: He provided an interview with to The Wall Street Journal and submitted a statement of correction to the Web site Rumorfix.com, discrediting a Radar Online story:

The story is untrue by Radar Online, Salahi said. The Oasis Winery & all real estate is not up for auction... The only limited items up for auction were owned only by Oasis Vineyards, Inc. ( not Oasis Winery)...which was either beyond repair or is truthfully our garbage that we don't want anyways... It would have cost us more to have it removed, or repaired. Its cheaper to buy new or fairly new in this horrible financial market.

The Oasis Winery is in fact reopening on Sept. 24 and it will be a very exclusive private party for our good friends in Politics to family/friends and long time supporters of the Salahis before & after the White House dinner party.

In the Washington Post story, Michaele Salahi describes the party as the American comeback. She is scheduled to debut her new single, Bump It, at the exclusive event.

Michaele's manager is aware that some may be skeptical of the kidnapping claim.

I know there has been a lot of bad press, but this is not a publicity stunt, Rodriguez told the Daily News. We are really concerned for her safety.