You'd think that local police forces setting up Facebook pages might be pointless, but if it was properly researched it may well be found that it's the complete opposite.
On the one hand it is just a way for criminals on the run to torment their would-be captors, but on the other hand those daft enough to do that are effectively leaving a bread trail right to them.
A Michigan man, known as Champagne Torino, knows this all too well. He's known to police and is wanted on 'existing warrants', so cleverly he commented on one of Redford Police Department's posts with: "You guys suck!"
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Credit: Redford Police Department/Facebook
The department replied, addressing him by his real name, Michael.
They wrote: "Michael, given your veiled threats to residents and officers on other threads, and your inability to engage in constructive dialogue on this page, this is your one warning. If it continues you will be blocked."
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Rather than leave it at that, Michael, or Champagne as I'm going to call him, issued them a challenge.
He sent them a direct message saying: "If youre [sic] next post gets a thousand shares I'll turn myself in along with a dozen doughnuts.
"And that's a promise.
"And I'll pick up every piece of litter around all your public schools let's see if you can get those shares."
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Whoever was in charge of the social media page screengrabbed the message, sharing it with the caption: "CHALLENGE ACCEPTED!
"Mr. Champagne Torino has issued the RTPD a challenge. As you can see below, if we can have this post SHARED 1000 times, he will turn himself in to RTPD on his existing warrants, clean up blight on public school property, and bring us a dozen donuts. Donuts!!!! He promised us donuts! You know how much we love Donuts!
"Help us win this challenge and clean up blght in Redford at the same time! It's as easy as a SHARE of this post."
And as you can see, the post surpassed the target of 1,000 shares, currently approaching 4,000.
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The page followed up the success with a 'mic drop' pic...
Although this could be misconstrued as a bit of a joke, leading people to say the old cliche of 'go out and catch proper criminals', the department have thanked the public for the support they received.
In another post they wrote: "It is amazing the support we get from the community. Mr. 'Torino' gave us a challenge. That challenge was accepted.
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"He may or may not be a man of his word. It is our experience everyone gets caught at some point. He has drawn a lot of attention to himself, and that makes it hard to hide from reality.
"The important thing to be seen here is the support of the community, and the desire to help. Our jobs would be next to impossible without that partnership. 1,000 shares in just over an hour! While this was fun, it was also educational. Thank you."
Featured Image Credit: Facebook