M. Night Shyamalan’s Trap Movie Is Inspired by a True Story

Operation Flagship was the culmination of a years-long statewide effort by U.S. Marshals to capture hundreds of escaped convicts. They formed—and this is real—a special task force called the Fugitive Investigative Strike Team, or FIST, to apprehend the criminals. One of FIST’s main tactics was essentially to scam fugitives through the mail. They would send out flyers assuring the fugitives that they had won a great prize. When they came to pick them up, they would be arrested. This was a safe and easy way to apprehend known criminals, since arresting them at their homes was dangerous and ineffective.

In Buffalo, New York, the fugitives learned they had won $10,000 in the lottery. In New York, they were told they needed to collect a “valuable package” that had been delivered. Also relevant to “Trap,” inmates in Hartford, Connecticut, were promised two free tickets to see Boy George in concert. In total, the large-scale undercover operation captured 3,309 criminals.

However, it was Operation Flagship – with the promise of tickets to the 1985 Redskins/Bengals game – that resulted in the greatest number of concentrated arrests. Oddly enough, one of the project’s principal architects, Tobias P. Roche, inserted several small clues that would have alerted an observant criminal. The fake name he chose to put on the game invitation was I. Michael Detnaw, which means “Wanted” backwards. The “business director” of the project was named Markus Cran, which means “narc” backwards.

The operation also involved hundreds of marshals, police officers and other law enforcement officers who dressed as ushers, cheerleaders, mascots and stadium employees. They all had to stay in character. It wasn’t just effective. It seemed oddly amusing.