Nice try.
A convicted sex offender has been arrested after faking his own death to live under a new name with an unsuspecting family, including young kids, according to authorities.
Benjamin Hollins, 50, who was originally convicted as a sex offender more than 20 years ago in California, was nabbed Tuesday after cops managed to track him down in Mesa following a months-long manhunt.
“Nice try, Benjamin. We found you. You’re not dead. We’re going to hold you accountable,” Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb said in the wake of the perv’s arrest.
Hollins was working as a behavioral health counselor in Arizona City back in 2018 when he kidnapped and tried to molest a 16-year-old client, the sheriff said.
He was subsequently sentenced to supervised probation and was required to register as a sex offender every year.
It wasn’t immediately clear if he followed through with his registrations.
Then, in October last year, Hollins had asked a woman to file a false police report saying she’d witnessed him committing suicide by jumping off the Roosevelt Lake Bridge, the sheriff said.
“A lot of resources were wasted looking for his body, which was clearly not found because he wasn’t dead,” Lamb said.
Even though a body was never found, Hollins’ sex offender registration lapsed because of his apparent death.
The sheriff said local cops refused to give up and continued trying to track him down.
Hollins was eventually found living — under a fake name — with a family with young kids in Mesa earlier this week, according to the sheriff.
The family had no idea about his sex offender history, the sheriff said.
“He was a little bit surprised to see us,” Lamb said.
“Great work by my deputies, detectives, and Chandler PD for keeping this guy accountable for his actions… despite his best attempts to disappear.”
He is currently being held in the Pinal County Jail.