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Police Sting Involving 'Free' 360s Nabs Crooks

Fugitives on the lam unable to resist the delicious lure of next-gen gaming.
By Mark Whiting, 11/30/2007

Although the original spark behind the El Paso Police's most recent sting operation is pure genius, the incredible part is how effective it actually turned out to be at netting the bad guys.

Let's say you're the cops and experienced trouble recently with getting wanted criminals to answer the door when the boys in blue come knocking. Then, some bright spark on the force gets the idea of using the promise of "free" Xbox 360s as a sort of "perfect cheese" with which to bait the proverbial mousetrap.

A free lunch is too good to be true you say? Perhaps. But when you're on the run from Johnny Law, can you really afford to take that chance?

As reported by The El Paso times, on November 8 and 9, local El Paso cops, aided by the US Marshals and operatives from the Lone Star Fugitive Task Force, sent out messages to the criminal underworld stating that a large number of wanted felons had "won" free Xbox 360 consoles and/or big screen plasma TVs. All the guilty parties had to do was show up to claim their winnings and next-gen nirvana would be theirs!

Criminals, it appears, have a particular soft spot for hi-def FPS gaming. 115 arrests later the cops had managed to clear more than 129 outstanding warrants off their "to do" list, booking crooks whose rap sheets included drug charges, illegal entry and various forms of violent crime. Ignominiously, the cops also reported the collection of over $25,000 in outstanding traffic violations.

"We are very pleased with this operation." says El Paso Police Chief Richard Wiles. "This is the kind of operation that really benefits the community. I think it is important for the citizens of El Paso to know what the Police Department is doing and what the U.S. Marshal's Office is doing because we do take these outstanding warrants very seriously and we want to put the resources into getting these people behind bars."

"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" continued Wiles. "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."

So kids, the lesson is: Next time you're thinking seriously about punching that monkey, you better ask yourself: a) Do you have an outstanding warrant for your arrest? and b) Do you feel lucky, punk?

No word yet on whether the follow-up "White Collar PS3 Crackdown" and "Operation DS Bait-and-Switch" will prove equally effective at catching morally sketchy stockbrokers and/or devious shoplifting teenagers. One thing's for sure though: you know that if it ever did, somewhere out there would be a message board full of people just dying to argue endlessly about the reason their console of choice was actually top dog at roping in the bad guys.