FARGO (AP) - Authorities decided Super Bowl Sunday would be a good time for Operation Touchdown, arresting more than 40 people on outstanding warrants.

Fargo police, Cass County deputies, U.S. marshals, and parole and probation officers fanned out around Fargo from about 2:30 p.m. to about 9:45 p.m. Sunday, in an operation that had been planned for two months, Cass County Sheriff Paul Laney said.

Fourteen teams of two officers each arrested 46 people, he said.

"We had a pretty productive day," Laney said. "We ended up with 46 individuals (in custody) and cleared up 54 warrants, total."

Laney said Cass County has more than 4,000 outstanding warrants in its database. He compared Sunday's sweep to an October sting that netted 30 arrests with a fake pre-Ozzy Osbourne concert party, saying it was a creative way to catch people avoiding justice.

"I do not think we had the shock that we had from the pre-concert sting," Laney said Monday. "A number (of suspects) were getting ready to sit down and watch the Super Bowl, or getting ready to head out to a Super Bowl party and when the knock on the door came, it wasn't the pizza delivery guy."

Officer Mike Benton and Cass County Deputy Scott Morton concentrated their search in an area of apartments. Out of 10 stops, they had mixed results.

One address turned out to be for a man with a nearly identical name to a suspect.

"It's not him," Benton said, after apologizing to a middle-aged couple. "The guy we're looking for is 22 years old. That guy is clearly twice that. We livened his day up."

"He had to sit down" when he first was questioned, Morton said.

Another stop found an ex-boyfriend wanted for burglary and terrorizing was no longer there. A woman gave the officers new information on where the suspect lived and worked.

"He used to live here," she said. "I kicked him out. Can't stand the guy."