Many parents in Arizona and across the United States have been waiting for years to receive much-needed child support, and although authorities have their eye on what they refer to as 'deadbeat' parents, it is often hard to catch them.

Authorities say that when they head to a residence to arrest a deadbeat parent, about 90 percent of the time the parent isn't there or does not live there anymore. That makes it very hard to get owed payments. On top of that, if the authorities are serving a civil warrant, they can't do anything about it if the parent decides to cross state lines.

Luckily, there is a bit of help from federal authorities. That help is given when the amount owed is more than $5,000. That's when federal investigators take over in order to arrest parents and charge them with a felony crime.

In hopes of catching more deadbeat parents, the government has launched a website that lists the most wanted parents, typically with their photograph and the amount they owe. According to the website, a man owing more than $1 million tops the current list. In some cases, the top contenders end up being professional athletes, as evidenced by previous news stories.

Fortunately, the federal authorities have been able to make some headway. Since 2006, they have arrested more than 500 deadbeat parents who forked up more than $33 million in child support.

Source: WAVY-TV, "Government goes after deadbeat parents," Jan. 18, 2012