By Augie Frost
The Oklahoman
OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. — The car thief opened the car door, sat and chuckled.
The keys were in the ignition. It couldn’t have been any easier.
Little did he know, he had just been caught red-handed on camera stealing a police bait car Saturday, Oklahoma City police Sgt. Matt Wallace said.
“The goal is to reduce the number of stolen cars,” Wallace said. “We have seen a decline in auto thefts since 2005.”
Wallace said no numbers were immediately available, but he did say his auto-theft division has noticed a decline and that can be partially attributable to the bait cars. He said would-be thieves are aware of the risk now.
In all, officers have about eight cars they use as bait. The cars are monitored by an officer on a computer, Wallace said. The department will not release the make and model of their cars to protect secrecy.
Finding the right location
Hot spots for car thefts are determined typically by patrol officers that have noticed a trend in an area, Wallace said.
Saturday, a camera mounted inside one of the department’s bait cars caught a thief on a joyride in southwest Oklahoma City, laughing and seemingly applauding himself for such a smooth heist.
He took the car from a location near SW 44 and Johnston. He drove around for about four minutes before parking the vehicle at an apartment complex at SW 40 and Douglas, police Master Sgt. Gary Knight said.
Officers went to the location and waited for the thief to come out, but they were never able to find him.
Copyright 2007 The Oklahoman