Police Look To Stop Potential Thieves With 'Bait Car' Signs
SACRAMENTO (CBS13) – When Mitch Rhoades and his friends returned to their car Sunday night in the Promenade shopping center parking lot, it was still right where they left it.
But according to CrimeReports.com, there have been 12 car thefts in and around this area in just the last month.
"If you see the signs, you are not going to want to steal in the parking lots or whatever," said shopper Deanna Yee.
Now a sign that reads "Police bait Car May Be In Parking Lot" has been posted by the Sacramento Police Department at an entrance to the busy shopping center off Gateway Park Boulevard.
"They plant a car in the parking lots and hope that it gets stolen to try and find the thieves," Yee said.
Sacramento Police say "bait cars" are similar to the downtown bait bike program.
The bait cars, however, have a little more technology involved that help police nab a thief in the act.
"They have cameras in them and so when someone steals it, by the time they get behind it or are following it or they track it, they shut everything off and so they have the camera on the person and they are freaking out because they can't get out of the car and they can't get away," said shopper Blainey Peddie.
But Marc Ellis says he isn't so sure the bait cars deter thefts. Instead he thinks they entice them.
"I just sort of have a problem when they leave the keys in and then someone is looking in and they think "i've got this opportunity,'" Ellis said.
Others say the signs are reassuring.
"It makes me feel a little bit safer around here. To know that they are watching out for people that are stealing stuff," Yee said.
