Sheriff uses game show-style ‘Wheel of Fugitives’ to catch criminals

A sheriff in Florida is using an unusal new weapon to catch criminals and says it's a success. A game show-style 'Wheel of Fugitives' is recorded and posted to Facebook every week.

Credit: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Credit: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

A sheriff in Florida is using an unusal new weapon to catch criminals and says it's a success. A game show-style 'Wheel of Fugitives' is recorded and posted to Facebook every week.

The Brevard County Sheriff’s office in central Florida is putting an unusual spin on the agency’s search for wanted criminals.

Using a game modeled on the big wheel in the long-running game show “Wheel of Fortune,” the office posts Facebook videos of its own version of the game called “Wheel of Fugitives.”

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“It’s time for ‘Wheel of Fugitives,’ the game that fugitives hate and citizens love,” the department posted on its Facebook page to alert users that the game is about to begin.

Sheriff Wayne Ivey, the game’s version of Pat Sajak, said during interviews on the unusual law enforcement tool that officers have been using the game for the past 18 months to find and arrest many fugitives.

"When we put someone up on the 'Wheel of Fugitive,' our citizens start sending us messages and contacting us right away," Ivey said in an interview with CBS News.

Here’s how it works. Ivey spins a wheel with the pictures of 10 wanted criminals attached to it. Whichever photo the wheel lands on is declared the unlucky “winner” and is the person the department will search for with help from all the Facebook users who watch the video.

Ivey said the game has helped catch dozens of wanted felons.