The Wisconsin guy who faked his own kayak death and fled to Europe is back

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We’ve been following this bizarre story out of Wisconsin where a man faked his own death and booked it to Europe, abandoning his family and leading to a major, and very expensive, police search effort before they found out what he’d done:

He later copped to being “safe” and “secure” in his apartment over across the ocean:

Well, he’s definitely “secure” now:

Ryan Borgwardt, the Watertown man believed to have faked his death in a kayak accident to flee the country, is back in Wisconsin and in custody, according to online records.

VINE,a website which provides updated custody status and criminal case information, lists Borgwardt in custody at the Green Lake County Jail.

You can imagine how fast they probably clapped that guy in the back of a paddy wagon once he touched down in the US of A:

The New York Times reports that Borgwardt “returned to the United States of his own accord” after “[flying] back from an undisclosed country on Tuesday.”

This is how this weirdo described his fake death caper:

Carrying a small, inflatable boat, he paddled his kayak out onto Green Lake, where he ‘overturned the kayak and dumped his phone in the lake,’ the sheriff said. He paddled to shore in the smaller boat, grabbed an electric bike he had stashed near a boat launch and rode to Madison, Wis. From there, he boarded a bus to Detroit and crossed into Canada, where he boarded a plane.

Authorities say Borgwardt “could face an obstruction charge and they are seeking $35,000 to $40,000 in restitution for eight weeks of search expenses.”

In other words the cops are basically like: