Posted on 12/26/2007 8:55:14 PM PST by hole_n_one
Tuesday, December 25, 2007
The bait was tempting: a nondescript, unlocked rental car, parked in the lots of busy shopping centers in Thousand Oaks at the height of the holiday shopping season, with high-end electronics left in plain sight.
For three days the Ventura County Sheriff's Department watched and waited.
No one took the bait.
"We really expected sometime in the three days we would have one or more people we would be arresting," Senior Officer Eric Buschow, a detective and spokesman with the Sheriff's Department, said Monday. "There were people that looked really hard, lingered around like they were contemplating taking things but didn't."
Instead, what officers found in their sting operation was no shortage of good Samaritans who locked the car, shut the trunk or in one case went into the store to have someone call the police.
"If we weren't trying to do this covertly, I would have gone up and thanked people," Buschow said. "It's great they got involved and cared enough to do that."
The sting took place Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of last week. This time of the year, thefts from unlocked vehicles increase and have been a problem throughout Ventura County. Thousand Oaks saw a spike in these types of crimes last fall.
On the first day of the sting, Buschow said he had to unlock the car multiple times, thanks to the good deeds of others.
Previous stings have resulted in the arrests of thieves.
It wasn't like police weren't trying to make it as enticing as possible: They left the car's trunk open and car windows down at times. The vehicle was left outside of Best Buy on Moorpark Road, the Janss Marketplace and The Oaks mall.
The stuff left in the car was worth enough to trigger a felony charge if anyone took the bait.
Buschow says the unsuccessful sting illustrates the majority of people would not take advantage of the opportunity to create crime. Timing and luck also had a role.
"Pinpointing that spot and dangling that carrot in front of the small population that would do it is hard," Buschow said. "There is a certain amount of luck in this."
Cars are broken into frequently, especially when items such as cell phones, portable GPS systems and MP3 players are inside. Recently, a resident had two laptops stolen from his vehicle.
"This is going on in all communities," Buschow said. "We don't have the corner on this market. There is an opportunistic population out there and they are doing very well."
No offence, but don’t the cops have more important things to do than trying to bait people into committing crimes?
Police entrapment thwarted.
Merry Christmas.
No, seriously? Is an unlocked door or open trunk "entrapment"? I'd say talking someone into the theft, or offering to split the goods with them if they would help, or offering them cash to assist would be entrapmnt, but an open car?
Nice story...at the time the appearance of the teller of “The Good
Samaritan” tale is being celebrated
The Samaritans were promptly arrested and tasered for interfering with a police investigation.
j/k
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I agree. I do. But I still think that most people are good.
WTH??? Were the police so bored that they had to CREATE thieves?? Unbelievable! What the heck was the purpose of this? How stupid.
lol!
WTH??? Were the police so bored that they had to CREATE thieves?? Unbelievable! What the heck was the purpose of this? How stupid.
Ayn Rand would love it!
These burglary of motor vehicle stings are a response to problem areas that have a high incident that occurs of that situation. If many people are becoming victimized by car burglars repeatedly in a specific area, Officers may target and bait that area in hopes of identifying the burglars. It is almost always a response to a problem in that area, not "creating" one.
I dunno. I can see Ragnar Danneskjöld setting up a decoy trap to catch the “looters,” and then kicking some major ass.
Francisco d’Anconia did something similar in Reardon’s mill, if I recall.
It wasn’t Reardon’s mill. It was the mine in the People’s Republic of Mexico.
The way this sting is described, the theft of these items would not be a vehicle burglary. A vehicle burglary occurs when the vehicle is locked with the windows rolled up and force is used to enter and steal the items. I suspect that the value of the items in this sting totaled over 400 dollars, which is the threshold dividing petty theft from grand theft in California. Had someone taken the items, the charge would have been grand theft, not vehicle burglary.
That too!
But I was thinking of when Francisco blended in as a worker at Reardon’s mill and organized a trap for the rioters (he used a rifle to take out someone who was about to whack Reardon with a club, as I recall).
LOL!
As you can see from the story, honest people can't be "baited". The cops are doing their job - catching crooks. Or in this case, trying to catch crooks.
This is not entrapment.
It’s good to see the good side of people occasionally.
This sounds like our little town. I saw a pair of decent looking sneakers near the bench in the middle of *town*. They were there for weeks. People watch out for each other here.
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