RALEIGH — Hundreds of Wake County residents got some surprise visitors Saturday morning. More than 130 deputies spent the day delivering more than 1,000 arrest warrants. Officers hoped to roundup hundreds of Wake County residents who have failed to show up in court on various charges.

Deputy Cook is making the rounds. Armed with a list of suspects, he's knocking on doors and handing out search warrants.

"We felt it was necessary to bring in additional staff this morning and hit the streets about 5:00 a.m.," Sheriff Baker explains. "Those persons that were trying to avoid us, they've got to sleep sometime, so we felt we could go in and get them while they were asleep."

The majority of these warrants are being served because people are released from jail and do not show up for court.

Cook says they get a backlog of warrants because it's so hard to find some people. But on a roundup, officers can spend extra time tracking down the suspect until they actually find him. Then every suspect gets booked and processed.

This is the last stop for the roundup. In nine hours, more than 150 people have come through these doors. Only about 20% made bail. The rest could spend at least the weekend in jail.

Sheriff John Baker hopes these roundups scare people into obeying the law.

Photographer:Robert Meikle