December 1985

By Vincent Del Giudice

WASHINGTON (UPI) — One hundred fugitives invited to a brunch and promised free tickets to the Washington Redskins-Cincinnati Bengals football game ended up getting taken to jail.

Police and federal marshals made the arrests Sunday at the Washington Convention Center. The fugitives had received letters informing them they had won the tickets from a fictitious cable television company set up as a part of the sting.

‘A drawing will be held for 10 lucky winners to receive 1986 Washington Redskins season tickets!’ the letter said. ‘In addition, a grand-prize drawing for a one-week, all expenses paid trip to Super Bowl XX, in New Orleans, will be given to a lucky person and three of their guests!’

Sunday’s festivities featured two costumed marshals, one dressed like a giant chicken and another dressed like an Indian. Both packed guns, the chicken carrying his under his right wing.

As the fugitives arrived, they were given name tags reading, ‘Hello, My Name Is,’ coffee and rolls. They were then escorted in small groups to rooms where they were welcomed by a marshal dressed in a tuxedo, arrested and searched.

Many of the fugitives, whose charges range from illegal drugs to murder, claimed they were innocent.

‘They said we were going to a football game,’ said one handcuffed suspect who was loaded on a green school bus. ‘That’s false advertising!’

‘They’re looking for my twin brother,’ one man said.

‘Get the mayor out here!’ another said.

What the fugitives did not notice was the acronym of the fictitious company, FIST, ostensibly Flagship International Sports Television, is also the acronym for the marshals’ Fugitive Investigative Strike Team.

‘It was just like an assembly line,’ said Herbert Rutherford, chief U.S. Marshal for the District of Columbia. ‘They went for it hook, line and sinker.’

There were no reports of violence but two pistols were confiscated during the searches.

A police officer said the presentation was so authentic that many of the suspects were singing the Washington fight song, ‘Hail to the Redskins.’