He tried to swim to freedom, but Mother Nature sent him up the river instead.

A fugitive’s attempt to evade police by jumping into a river in North Carolina ended in failure, they say, after officers simply waited downstream to capture him.

Jesse Lee Boyd, who was wanted by the U.S. Marshals Service, was taken into custody in Lake Lure on Saturday.

Jesse Lee Boyd was caught by police in Lake Lure, N.C., on Saturday after officers waited on this bridge for him to float downstream. (Lake Lure Police Department/Google Maps)

Police there say Boyd, who was considered armed and dangerous, fled an initial arrest attempt at the Geneva Riverside Tiki Bar where he worked as a cook. He then leapt into the Broad River and “continued swimming toward the Memorial Highway Bridge,” the Lake Lure Police Department said in a statement.

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“Lake Lure Officers positioned themselves on the bridge as well as the banks below, where Sergeant Gittens and Officer Tommy Lytle ordered Boyd to exit the river in which he complied and was taken into custody,” they added.

Boyd, who currently remains jailed with a $250,000 bond, was booked “on several Felony charges, 18 felony warrants from Des Moines Iowa for Forgery/Counterfeiting and other felony warrants from the U.S. Marshalls Office for Detainer/Fugitive-Dangerous Drugs,” police said.