A Connecticut police department is trying out new methods of getting wanted criminals to turn themselves in.
The City of Torrington police department posted two mugshots on Facebook early Wednesday morning, and claimed that they had made a deal with Jose Simms, pictured in the first mugshot. If the post got 15,000 likes, they wrote, he would turn himself in.
“Here’s an interesting one … Jose Simms (The first warrant pictured) negotiated with me earlier this week (Through Facebook) and has agreed to turn himself in to Torrington Police if we can get 15,000 ‘likes’ on this post (I said 10,000 he wanted 20,000, we split),” the police department’s Facebook post said. “It will be difficult but is doable.”
The post also said that if you didn’t want to wait in suspense, you could call with any information about where the two people are.
Reactions in the comments ranged from feelings of patriotic duty to disgust. One commenter asked if it was a joke, to which the police page responded that it was “not a joke at all.”
The post is now at 17,000 likes, but according to an updated version of the post, Mr. Simms has yet to turn himself in.
Simms is wanted for seven counts of failure to appear. According to CNN affiliate WTNH, court documents show Simms has previously been charged with risk of injury to a child, breach of peace, false incident, violation of a protective order, misuse of emergency 911 and false statement.
Torrington Police wrote in the comments that they believe he is currently in New York, and they are unable to access him.
For now, we will have to wait and see if Simms will hold up his end of the deal.
