14 DAY TRIAL // It was a fully legal operation that took place in El Paso, Texas and it is probably one of the funniest ways of arresting fugitives in recent times. What was it all about? Police Chief Richard Wiles announced that the promise of an Xbox 360 and other prizes lured more than 100 fugitives to their arrests, after many other traditional measures, such as visiting their homes to make the arrest, failed.
Most of the people were wanted for violent crimes or drug dealing charges. They were led to believe that they have won an Xbox 360, so they immediately ran to claim their "prize", where police officers were expecting them instead. The operation resulted in no less than 115 arrests, summing 129 warrants. Also, over 25 thousand US dollars in outstanding traffic lines were collected.
The Police Chief told to the local media: "To do the things that we've done in this community in regards to the crime level, it really takes thinking outside of the box". And taking them into the box... with an Xbox. With many games already banned or heavily censored by authorities all over the world, dangerous criminals mad about video games won't improve the already poor opinion these authorities have.
But the Texas police officers seem not to care about such things, as Wiles declared to the media: "We have a lot of different ideas and we are willing to look at them no matter how crazy they sound from time to time. If we can do them legally, and it has an impact like this one does and it save the taxpayers money like this one does, then we are willing to implement it or give it a shot". So don't get too excited if you receive an anonymous phone call stating that you have won a game console.