How's this for a crazy story to start the new year? A father thought to have committed suicide 18 months ago is back from the dead and headed to prison after a routine traffic stop! Banker Aubrey Lee Price was facing a federal indictment for embezzlement in 2012 when he disappeared, leaving his wife and kids to believe he'd died by throwing himself off of a ferry boat.
But when police stopped him for overly tinted windows in Brunswick, Georgia, Price 'fessed up to having been on the run for a year and a half after faking his own death!
Say it with me now: What. A. Jerk.
His poor wife! His poor kids!
For 18 months, they've apparently thought Dad was dead, as Price himself admits his family didn't know what was going on. And this whole time he was wandering the country, growing out his hair and working odd jobs?
Just to avoid prison?
According to the allegations against him, Price, a former pastor, had lost millions in an investment scheme, so he'd moved $21 million from various accounts at the Montgomery Bank & Trust to cover up thefts and losses. The moves caused the bank's collapse, and Price was facing some pretty hefty federal charges in the case when he wrote out a suicide note and boarded a ferry headed for Fort Myers, Florida. Video showed Price getting on the ferry, but no one saw him get off the on the other end. The Coast Guard searched for a body, but none came up.
The 47-year-old had reportedly told his family of plans to leap off a ferry to kill himself, and a judge eventually declared him dead.
Only the FBI never agreed with the judge, and now we know why.
Price is alive and well.
And his poor wife and kids have to live with the fact that he abandoned them.
You know, there are a lot of things in this world that are forgivable. Embezzlement is not something I agree with, but if he'd faced up to the crimes and done the time, well, you could see a woman standing by her man. She doesn't have to condone what he did to still love him.
But a man who abandons his wife and kids? Who lets them go through the pain and suffering commensurate with grieving a loved one?
That's a lot to forgive!
I don't know if the relief that the father of my kids is alive would be enough to carry me over that hump.
How about you? What would your reaction be?
Images via Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office; Glynn County Detention Center