In the end, the only people who didn't make it to court were Craig Thomson's lawyers.
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The Member for Dobell represented himself before a Wyong magistrate and a packed public gallery just after 4pm, where he was granted bail to face fraud charges in Victoria. His appearance came hours after the first media began to converge on his house in anticipation of an arrest.
Mr Thomson looked calm, even amused, as he sat in the dock on one count of fraud involving a credit card and $330. The remaining charges - all 149 of them - were not tabled due to a printing problem.
''Of course,'' he told the court, ''[I] intend to be there in Victoria,'' for the matter set down for February 6.
But the commander of the fraud squad, Superintendent Col Dyson, of NSW Police, revealed that Mr Thomson had knocked back the opportunity to go earlier. The Victorian police had invited him to surrender himself to them before Christmas.
''I can't comment on why he refused to go down,'' Superintendent Dyson said after the arrest.
With Mr Thomson choosing not to go to Melbourne, the Victorian police nominated the moment to come to him instead. The 48-year-old was arrested at his Tuggerah electoral office at about 1pm, as tweeted by the waiting media immediately after officers walked through the door.
The first cameras followed him from his electoral office to Wyong police station but thanks to social media, word of his arrest travelled faster. By the time Mr Dyson walked out of the station at 3.30pm, a full press pack and about dozen cameras were waiting in the afternoon sun.
''He's been calm, he's accepted what's been said to him, he hasn't argued,'' he said.
But if Mr Thomson appeared calm on the outside, it didn't reflect his inner frustration.
When he finally addressed the media, he revealed ''every fibre in my being is screaming out to say how wrong this is.''
By then he had been granted bail on three conditions: he must notify police within 24 hours of any change of address; of any interstate or overseas travel - except to Canberra as part of his parliamentary duties; and he must not, directly or through a third party, contact anyone with whom he had engaged in any sexual services.
He told the media, as he had earlier told the court, he would be in Melbourne next week.
Before he jumped in a waiting car he added - and not for the first time on such an occasion - that he would be ''vigorously defending these charges''.
''As I have said from the start I have done no wrongdoing and that is what will be found in this matter.''
