1.
When people ~ someone who has done something wrong, they succeed in finding them in order to arrest or punish them.
The law caught up with him yesterday.
PHRASAL VERB: V P P n
2.
If something catches up with you, you are forced to deal with something unpleasant that happened or that you did in the past, which you have been able to avoid until now.
Although he subsequently became a successful businessman, his criminal past caught up with him.
PHRASAL VERB: V P P n