A 29-year-old man is continuing to evade police in Torrington despite a promise made via social media.
Jose Simms recently told a Torrington police lieutenant he’d turn himself in to face consequences related to four arrest warrants in that city – but only if a Facebook post of his wanted poster got 15,000 ‘likes.’
Torrington police say Simms still hadn’t contacted the department as of 1 p.m. Thursday despite the post having received 24,000 electronic thumbs up.
“We are continuing to look for him and regardless of the number of likes we get on the post, we are still going to make every effort to locate Mr. Simms and take him into custody,” said Lt. Bart Barown of the Torrington Police Department.
Barown said that despite Simms’ failure to hold up his end of the bargain, he still thought that the Facebook deal was effective because it got the public involved in the search.
“We received some tips on possibly his location,” Barown said. “We received additional information that we did not have.”
Barown said he’s heard Simms could be in Enfield, Hartford, or somewhere in New York.
Simms has several pending criminal charges including breach of peace and felony violation of a protective order.
