Police Use Misleading Sweepstakes Ploy
ANNOUNCER: After registering in the lobby, this guy thought he was going into another room for a free DVD player.</s>UNKNOWN MALE: Come on in, man. Congratulations!</s>ANNOUNCER: Instead he was arrested and taken to jail - stung by a sting that preyed on his greed. You could say that Orrin Hudson is the pied piper of positivity and he's using that message to build champions in the chess game of life.</s>UNKNOWN MALE: Checkmate.</s>ANNOUNCER: It hasn't been done in more than 100 years. A daredevil wants a chance to tightrope over Niagara Falls. Buckle up and get ready to cross America - this is CNN's</s>AMERICAN STORIES. LEON HARRIS, HOST: Hello and welcome to AMERICAN STORIES - I'm your host, Leon Harris. This show is our weekly collection of powerful stories and images. It's a trip across the U.S. seen through the eyes of local journalists. Now for the past 32 years she's lived a normal, law-abiding life. Her husband and three grown children knew her as Tanya Hudkins- McCartor. But it was all a lie. A life found before she was McCartor she was Margo Freshwater convicted of murder and on the run. The story of how her past caught up to her coming up later in our "In-depth Report," but first, we're going to begin, as always, with "Breaking News."</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's turned off onto a small street. An officer tried his best to do that tip maneuver but apparently this person just kept his foot on the gas keeping ahead of the officer just a little bit.</s>HARRIS: The two men in the white SUV are armed robbery suspects of an area hotel. Here's how it concludes on our Los Angeles affiliate</s>KCAL. UNKNOWN MALE: Here he comes. You see the officer right there - a perfect place to do that tip maneuver off into the opposite direction of traffic. He's coming onto the off-ramp opposite the direction of traffic. He's got a moving van ahead. There it is a head-on collision - a head-on collision right with another SUV. That person did not even see this person coming.</s>HARRIS: Amazingly nobody is hurt. Police converge on the crash instantly. One suspect gives himself up right away. A few minutes later the second suspect is dragged from the car and put in handcuffs. The driver of the van was a bit dazed but able to walk away from the wreck.</s>UNKNOWN MALE: Just follow him back there. The party's back there.</s>GINA MARAVELLA, REPORTER, KTVK TELEVISION (voice-over): After registering in the lobby this guy thought he was going into another room for a free DVD player.</s>UNKNOWN MALE: Come on in, man. Congratulations!</s>MARAVELLA: The Chandler Police had a different prize for him and two dozen others who had outstanding arrest warrants - mostly for DUIs.</s>EMMA BRIBIESCAB, OFFICER, CHANDLER POLICE: Our warrant officer realized that there was a huge amount of outstanding DUI warrants. He spent all of the suspects letters to their last known address informing them that they had been selected to receive a prize, and gave them a time and location where they needed to show up.</s>EDDIE BURNS, CHANDLER POLICE: The cameras up front actually added to the atmosphere by drawing the suspects into the illusion that they were getting a prize.</s>MARAVELLA: Eddie Burns set up the cameras for the Chandler Police Department - one in front, one in back and a hidden camera so officers knew when suspects were coming. When they first showed up in the lobby of the Chandler Center for the Arts, those with warrants registered at this table and all of these workers here are actually police officers.</s>BRIBIESCAB: They had their identities confirmed. They were escorted to the back by undercover officers and they were taken into arrest.</s>UNKNOWN MALE: Come on in.</s>UNKNOWN MALE: We have a warrant for your arrest.</s>UNKNOWN MALE: You're caught up in a police sting.</s>UNKNOWN FEMALE: What?</s>UNKNOWN MALE: We have a warrant for your arrest, ma'am.</s>UNKNOWN MALE: You're under arrest.</s>UNKNOWN FEMALE: Are you kidding me?</s>UNKNOWN MALE: No - you're under arrest.</s>UNKNOWN FEMALE: Are you - this is a joke?</s>UNKNOWN MALE: No - this is not a joke. You are under arrest.</s>UNKNOWN FEMALE: What for?</s>UNKNOWN MALE: We have a warrant for you arrest.</s>UNKNOWN FEMALE: I don't understand why.</s>UNKNOWN MALE: Do you have a ticket that you haven't taken care of?</s>UNKNOWN FEMALE: Yeah - I think so but I don't think it was this - oh, my God!</s>MARAVELLA: Some people were upset, others disappointed but all seemed surprised. After they were cuffed the suspects were loaded into a van and taken to jail. (on camera): After police officers closed up shop and locked the door two more people showed up banging on the door insisting they be allowed to claim their prize and they were arrested, too.</s>BRIBIESCAB: If anybody has warrants - take care of them.</s>MARAVELLA: Because you never know when the prize patrol is coming.</s>UNKNOWN FEMALE: And it's wedged up in there. They're going to have to get a tow truck to pull it down.</s>ANNOUNCER: Coming up - a bizarre story of how two large tires became imbedded into the wall of a family's home. That is the sound of Mark Meyers (ph) creating. The tree trunk is his canvass and five chainsaws are his brushes. A rather unusual work of art. You're watching AMERICAN STORIES.