A military dad considered the prankster of his family tried to surprise his wife and Darden Clarkethree kids when he returned home — only the joke was on him.

After a nine-month deployment in Kuwait, National Guardsman Jeff Grimes couldn't wait to see the expression on the faces of his family members when he showed up unexpectedly back home in Brookhaven, Mississippi.

But on the way, nothing went as planned.

"Everything was ... going wrong until the very last moment," said Grimes, 38.

His ride to the airport was delayed. The plane was then downsized, which meant he'd have to catch a later flight. After a series of connections, he tried to rent a vehicle to get home but was turned away because the company did not accept his debit card. When a buddy agreed to pick him up, Grimes found out his family wasn't even home. They were visiting relatives three hours away.

Then, he got another surprise as he walked through his front door: His wife, Holly, had installed security cameras inside the property while he was gone. Any breaches would send a notification to her phone.

Watch the moment in the video above when this dad is finally able to surprise his family with his return home.

"I'm like, 'OK, how am I going to do this?' And now I can't turn on any lights, I can't watch TV because everywhere that I would go, the security camera would be looking," he said.

Unwilling to give up the charade, Grimes found one spot in the house where he wouldn't be seen. He hid in the dark for five hours and, ironically, waited for their homecoming.

"I was really, really in shock, I guess would be the best way to explain it," said Holly Grimes, 39. "I was completely in shock. I screamed, I ran, I cried."

Watch the full story below.

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