(Photo credit: Cook County Sheriff's Office)

The offer seemed too good to be true—spend an afternoon in Chicago testing electronics, get paid $75 for your time, and then keep the electronics at the end of the day—and it was. What the offer didn’t advertise was that the participants would be arrested upon arrival.

The operation was actually a sting led by the Cook County Sheriff’s Office to lure fugitives to their arrests.

“It’s part of a menu of things that we’re doing to try to clear up” 44,000 outstanding arrest warrants in the county, said Sheriff Tom Dart as a news conference on Tuesday, according to the Chicago Tribune.

Officials mailed about 10,000 fake offers to the last known addresses of the fugitives. Even though thousands of the letters were returned as undeliverable, more than 50 fugitives made appointments with the bogus “C.W. Marketing” to take advantage of the offer.

“C.W.” actually stood for Central Warrants, the unit that handled the operation that resulted in 102 arrests.

The set-up was elaborate. According to a news release from the Sheriff’s office, “As the offenders pulled up to the warehouse, smiling undercover officers headed to their cars while carrying empty boxes for plasma TVs and video game systems, creating the appearance of a festive, gift-filled visit. The fugitives were then warmly welcomed by other officers wearing bright T-shirts, surrounded by signs and balloons.”

Once inside the warehouse, the fake celebration would continue with the unwitting suspects getting their photos taken and confirming their identities.

And then they got arrested.

The eager fugitives included Robert Longstreet, 53, who took a bus from Wisconsin in order to take part in the offer. He had previous arrests for assault and drug possession and was wanted for domestic battery, according to police.

Christopher Melnyk, 47, of Chicago, had 22 previous arrests for offenses including battery and criminal trespassing. He was suspicious of the letter and sent a relative in his place. But the relative gave police information about Melnyk’s location and he was arrested.

A third suspect, Tayrone Davis, 34, was running late for his appointment and was “breathlessly calling investigators as he took buses and sprinted the final blocks to make his appointment,” according to the news release. Davis had been arrested 32 times for offenses including burglary and domestic battery causing bodily harm.

This is just the latest trap the Sheriff’s Office has set for fugitives. In other recent operations, fugitives were promised holiday shopping certificates and told they were owed money from federal stimulus dollars.