Stupid Criminal: A Guy Tried to Fake His Drowning, But He Was Wearing an Ankle Monitor?

A 41-year-old man from Oklahoma named Melvin Emde tried to fake his death last month, by having his son tell cops that he drowned while they were kayaking on the Mississippi River in Louisiana.

At the time, the cops were very suspicious, because he was due in court later THAT day in a case involving some serious rape charges.

Then, they discovered that Melvin had been ordered to wear an ANKLE MONITOR as a condition of his bail . . . and that placed him at a Walmart earlier that day, where he bought two prepaid phones.

At some point, he apparently cut the ankle monitor off, but it's unclear when that happened, and what he did with it.  However, the cops were able to track him through those phones, which he used periodically for a while, and then dumped.

The cops were privately treating this as a fugitive case, and not a drowning . . . until they finally found him in Georgia on Sunday.  The cops there caught him after pulling over a motorcycle without a license plate.

He tried to flee, but he crashed.  He also tried to give a false name, but his fingerprints revealed his identity.

Melvin will now be facing additional charges.  And his son is also expected to be charged in the scheme.

(USA Today / Facebook)