Slidell police arrested an unemployed Mississippi man Saturday for making a false report after he allegedly made up a story of being robbed at knifepoint.

According to Slidell police spokesman Capt. Kevin Foltz, John J. Brayson, 30 of Carriere, Miss., faked the robbery, because he didn’t want his wife to know he had lost his job.

A nurse at the Slidell Memorial Hospital’s emergency room called police Saturday morning and reported that a man walked in and reported that he had been injured during a robbery. Police arrived to find Brayson with what police called a “minor scratch.” Brayson told police that while he was in a convenience store on Front Street two men approached him and asked him to buy them some beer.

Brayson said he refused and then claimed one of the men pulled out a small pocketknife and cut him, while the other man punched him in the ribs. Brayson said he fell to the ground, and one of the men took his wallet out of his pocket, and the two ran off in an unknown direction. He told police the wallet contained $227.

Brayson told police that he was in Slidell to get his paycheck from the Target store on Airport Road.

After that, he was going to check on a job opening at another store, also on Airport Road. Brayson’s story changed when police asked him why he went so far out of his way to Front Street.

Foltz said that after more questioning, Brayson finally admitted that he faked the robbery, because he has lost his job at Target two weeks ago, and his wife expected him to bring home $227 in pay.

For the past two weeks, Brayson would leave his home and go to the Mississippi Welcome Center on in Interstate 10, and hang out there until it was time to go home.

Slidell police issued Brayson a summons for making a false report of a crime and was released. Brayson has to return to face the judge at the Slidell City Court.

Police Chief Freddy Drennan said making a false report is not only a crime, but also it wastes the time and resources of the police as they try to solve a crime that never happened.