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Subscribe to RSSPolice say a group of teens swiped a vehicle for a joy ride, not knowing it was a bait car carrying a surveillance camera that caught their 20-minute trip around Albuquerque on video.
“It was one of the cars we park randomly around the city, specifically in hot spots where we have repeated auto burglaries and auto theft,” Albuquerque Police Officer Robert Gibbs said on Wednesday.
Bait cars, also called decoy cars, are commonly used by law enforcement agencies nationwide to catch car thieves. Vehicles are often modified with GPS tracking, audio and video surveillance and can be remotely controlled. In a Texas case, police have turned to the public’s help in locating a couple who took a "bait car" with a hidden camera for a quick spin.
Link to the video: See the decoy car escapade
Surveillance video from Albuquerque shows a 15-year-old boy jumping into the driver’s seat of the car, picking up three friends along the way, according to KOAT-TV, an ABC News affiliate in Albuquerque.
The scene is joyous with smiles and high-fives, the teens calling each other “dog.”
"I saw this car with the keys inside. I opened the door, it was unlocked. I grabbed the keys and was like, this is the car," the teen driver says in the video.
Video: Cops catch car thieves with hidden camera
It doesn’t take long for the teens to get worried and begin to conspire. They talk about ditching the car and torching it, blaming the whole thing on someone else, according to KOAT-TV.
"Oh my God, dog, what if we go to jail for this?! This is grand theft auto, dog! I'm (expletive) hopping the (expletive) out and running for my life! I'm on (expletive) probation," one of teens is heard saying.
Video: Boy, 11, steals car, goes for joyride, police say
But their ride comes to an end when the boys see red-and-blue lights flashing in the rear-view window.
“That’s a cop,” a teen passenger is heard saying.
His pal confirms the obvious.
Gibbs said the four boys, whose identities were withheld because of their age, were charged with auto burglary and unlawful taking of a motor vehicle, both felony offenses.
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Who has the time and resources could place a world of temptation in front of people with nothing but time in their hands. How many could you catch? Ten, hundred, ten thousand, a million? Why? What is this to accomplish? Where is this to be done? Where would you house everyone you arrested?. Lets oversimplify, reduce costs by just arresting people at random, charge a fee, make money, put some on public display, sentence some to long terms?
Perhaps a public message broadcast from time to time, blue light special - Attention, Attention citizens a random arrest about to be made please be on your best behaviour or it could be you. This message brought to by the Committee for Biblical Justice.
Think of terrorism as a low cost economical tool for behavioural modification?
If they hadn't taken that car it would have been another and that one would have more than likely ended up a burning wreck.
Your tone would change really quick if it had been yours and you probably would have ended up as a different remark from your biblical committee (didn't they say somewhere in there "Thou shalt not steal"?)
Leave religion out of it that is a personal thing and to each his own.
The problem lies in all these people demanding theirs is the best and the only one that is right.
Religion does not define a persons conduct that is only determined by the person.
Quit using religion as an excuse or a arguing platform and a whole lot of problems will go away.
Dogs driving cars, what a brave new world!
dumb bitches...
Sounds like they were STUPID B@$T@RD$
and they will get off because of there age and race.....they will claim there were profiled....
I saw what age the initial thief was (15), but I missed what race they were in the article. Where does it tell you thier race?
You think everyone goes around calling each other Dog?
@Scottnrg In my area kids a good number of kids do. "Dog", "dude" or "bro", take your pick. Yesterday, I witnessed 3 six year old boys in my neighborhood using those terms to talk to one another. 2 boys were white and one was Korean.
You are probably right, they probably "sag" their pants too.
I love watching the show "Bait Car". These folks who hop in and take the care are funny. Sure they should go to jail....people need to learn to keep their hands off stuff that does not belong to them. If it takes a bait car to find them well...they have just saved some normal citizen the pain of loosing their car and dealing with the insurance company. Bait them then throw them in jail.
Kids will be kids. No one was hurt, ok? Except for the police's pride. That is good. So lighten up. I personally found this story amusing along with the cop's "bait car" idea. I have seen "bait cars" with "dummy bait cops" inside. It's funny. Smiling department store dummy faces in uniform trying to look tough. Brilliant.
You're kidding right? Stealing a car is "kids will be kids"? Really?
Maybe getting these kids arrested will make them think about it the next time they are tempted.
If kids will be kids is the parents stance then they should be arrested too.
The problem with most kids these days is the parenting or lack thereof. You see good kids the chances are they have good parents and vice versa.
When I was a kid if you did wrong you got your butt kicked, I won't say that there weren't misstreated or abused kids, but I never met one and I lived all over the country.
Don't do away with the laws against child abuse, but don't make it impossible to properly discipline the children.
In this context I believe it is "dawg"....not dog.......
How is this going to help the car thief problem? These are not professional car thieves; these are just some kids taking advantage of a setup. Yes they should not have taken it but attesting them will not stop the crime wave.
Similar instances do catch professional thieves. But really its not the professionals that the police have to spend most of their time tracking down. Its the dumbass kids and joyriders who crash and burn, the coked up drugfiends looking for a quick sell to support their habits, the muggers and burglars looking for a quick getaway vehicle.
Old Hat, this can be an effective tactic to deter auto theft. These were joyriders, but this is just one instance that was reported in the news. Arresting professionals who take the bait will at least put a dent in the crime wave. If thieves know bait cars are in use, they might think twice before stealing YOUR car. If the bait is taken, criminals will be apprehended and taken out of commission and joyriders will be taught a lesson. Police can't watch all cars (yours and mine) all the time, but they can watch bait cars to get theives off of the street.
They are immature thieves yet. Their brains are not developed beyond a toddlers capabilities. So we should let them rest in jail and perhaps think of what they did. Will they do it again? Probably, and next time maybe they will be full adults and can do time in full jail attire and big bars. They are mixed up. Outside jail they want in, inside jail they want out....guess they just cannot make up their undeveloped minds.
I can't figure out if you created your name A lot which should be two words on purpose or not.
A joy and reckless ride ends up as what they thought as a result for their courageous and outrageous behavior.
They need to make a law against criminal stupidity...
The cops almost alway put bait cars in black and minority areas. The facts is that white people steal cars almost as often. Why don't cops start putting bait cars in front of rich private high school and catch some of those snobby white kids. You will catch one in under 5 minutes. Is the future of a rich white kid more important than that of a poor black kid? Bait cars border on entrapment when they leave the door open with the car running. Any idiot who left their car running with the key in it with the door open deserves to have their car stolen.
I guess that's why the majority of the bait car videos that make such shows as "World's Dumbest" showcase whites...
And any idiot who believes this deserves what's coming to them as well.
The jails are already overcrowded. Annd we wouldn't be able afford enough jail space nor build them fast enough.
Yeah, I know. Some sarcasm in that statement, but still.
Some people are just clueless. Not to mention morally lacking....like this comment from Robbie the robot;
The police place bait cars in areas KNOWN to have car theft problems and here comes the RACE card. Case in point are the idiots who stole this car...one is on probation already.
A great idea bc I've heard this is a real problem area, (sarcasm).
More RACE BAITING. This guy sounds like Al Sharpton.
And the true colors come shining through. More THUG mentality and reasoning. Spoken just like the criminal YOU probably are. BTW, the car was NOT running.
well there some truth to that, but it's more about poor people vs rich people. why would rich kids, who have their own cars steal cars??? and yeah, if you leave a car, unlocked, with the keys in it, in many parts of the country, someone will pinch it. I am not saying it's right, but it will happen, before it was, cars it was horses. It is an old story. People need to be accountable for actions, but that was a setup. You think the 3 passengers should be prosecuted for getting in a car? That is absurd. Prosecute the bankers who criminally invested in derivatives and bad loans first. Personal responsibility is not just for the poor. This whole society's culture is one of entitlement. And yes, factually, it is true, poor people, minorities, are more targeted for this type of sting operation. You don't see the police at college busting white kids for pot do you?
Another teen that has ruin his life and now the public will have to take care of him/her for the rest of their life. I wonder what the parents will do. Teens need to know that there are consequences involved with this type of behavior and he/she was lucky on this day, they could of easily have killed someone. Teens get real, do not ruin your life, life is difficult enough without you making a bad decision or using poor judgement which will make your value much less.
@Popo....well said. I found it very interesting that one of the teens from article said, "I'm on probation dude". Yet, he still went along with his friends. A mistake that he will likely regret for the rest of his life. Probably bc he has no sense of lawlessness and it's consequences.
As a society, we MUST get our "moral compass" pointed correctly. The media has played a major role in justification of BAD behavior over the years. Lost is the idea of personal accountability. Now it's all about WHO, besides yourself to blame. You read the comments on here and you get a sense that THUG standards are becoming the norm. People want to dwell on the "entrapment" of this story instead of the FOOLISHNESS of the criminals. It's crazy.
uhhh how could they easily have killed someone? That assertion doesn't even make sense.
Sure it makes sense. You have a 15 year old behind the wheel of a stolen car. Take inexperienced underage driver....mix with showing off for friends. Add a potential police chase.
Does that help? That's just one possible scenario.
You can argue that the kid would have taken another car, but it was unlocked with the keys in it. Sounds like entrapment to me. And his passengers shouldn't be prosecuted for getting a car. They cops need to catch some real criminals not juvies on a joyride. Was it wrong yeah, but in the grand scheme of things, not that big a deal. If they tried taking my car, with an alarm and theft-deterrent system, they wouldn't have gone anywhere, besides it being locked, with no keys. I am much more disturbed by the white collar crimes that go unpunished and get a slap on the wrist with a fine and no conviction. If you want a society with people who have a sense of personal accountability start with rich white people. The number and percentage of white and asian kids doing pot far outweighs the number of black and spanish kids doing it, yet which population is serving jail time for it? It is part of our racist elitist society.
Not entrapment.
". . . the fact that government agents 'merely afforded opportunities or facilities for the commission of the offense does not' constitute entrapment." - Chief Justice Warren, Sherman vs. U.S. (1958)
Also see: Osborn Vs U.S. (1966), U.S. vs Russell (1973), Hampton vs. U.S. (1976)
Just stupid criminals.
Way off topic and I've never heard such BS. Define "far outweighs"? And back up this stat with some reference plz cause in Cali it sure isn't true. NOT EVEN CLOSE. I've never heard the idea that pot was a race specific drug. Oh that's right, probably cause it's not true.
Sounds to me like YOU'RE WHITE and only get stoned with your white buddies.
As for the article....yeah, maybe it was entrapment. Chances are pretty good the kids will get off with a slap to the wrist. The bigger question is, did they learn their lesson.
They didn't say what colour the car was, either.