These were just some of the snapshots from Spring Cleaning, an operation by the Northampton County Sheriff's Office to round up absconders and other scofflaws this morning throughout the county.

One man arrested in The Hook, a community just outside the Gaston area off Cal Floyd Road, told officers he had been avoiding arrest for three years as a relative condemned the officers for not solving the murder of his cousin. Asked what murder he was referring to, the man walked away without response.

(A complete rundown of the arrests made in Spring Cleaning is expected to be reported no later than Monday. For the complete series of photos, please visit our Facebook page)

The man who fled through the window, Jevontae High, hurled a racial epithet at rrspin.com and demanded a relative fetch his Air Jordan shoes before he was taken to Jackson for booking.

Another one of High's relatives fled through the woods and Department of Correction dog handlers tried to find him to no avail.

On the eastern end of the county, officers found possible stolen goods from Walmart in a van outside Rich Square, while in the Woodland area they located a man, Jeff Timberlake, who was wanted in Gates County for several counts related to identity theft.

High gets in a patrol car.

In the Seaboard area, a man whose son was picked up for misdemeanor larceny in Nash County, expressed frustration peppered with expletives that he was tired of cops always coming to the house.

Some 30 officers representing agencies throughout the area — the Halifax County Sheriff's Office, police departments from Roanoke Rapids, Gaston, Jackson, Rich Square and Seaboard, probation and parole, and the state Highway Patrol — participated in the roundup, armed with more than 100 warrants.

They ended up locating and arresting 13, Captain Chuck Hasty of the Northampton County Sheriff's Office said.

Dog handlers search for a scofflaw.

The warrants included those for robbery, assault with a deadly weapon, assaults, breaking and entering, drugs, probation violations, child support and worthless checks.

The absconders, Rich Square Police Chief A.B. Roye said, “Do everything they can to avoid arrest. They hide and do anything to stay out of court. Once they are released on bond, it makes it difficult to find them.”

Hasty said it is simpler for people to just face consequences. “If more people would do that, the less it ties up personnel in the judicial system. You're always having to look over your shoulder. It's a hard way of living life to have to duck and dodge.”