MzWings
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Do you know where your children are?
« on: Aug 15th, 2003, 6:36pm » |
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Young thieves take bait
Officials shocked by age of boys caught stealing strategic police car
Fri Aug 15 2003
FOUR boys -- aged seven, eight, 10 and 11 -- were caught red-handed early yesterday by police after they stole one of the city's new "bait cars" from a darkened north-end street.
The young ages of the car thieves, who were turned over to their parents, shocked officials and signalled the beginning of what police say is a new chapter in crime fighting.
"We now have evidence that seven- and eight-year-olds are involved in stealing cars," said Barry Ward, Manitoba Public Insurance's auto theft coordinator.
"How safe can we be on the street?"
Police say the bait car -- they won't reveal its make or model -- was parked near Alfred Avenue and Powers Street when the youths stole it around 1:50 a.m.
Police do not leave the keys in the ignition of the bait car, but a thief can "jack" the vehicle using only a screwdriver. When they started the car, the boys activated a tracking device that's monitored by wireless global positioning satellite technology. That alerted a senior officer at the downtown Public Safety Building that the car was moving.
The senior officer, watching the bait car's direction on a computer screen, directed police cruisers toward it.
At 2:04 a.m., the boys stopped the car near Aberdeen Avenue and Main Street when they saw police closing in. They bolted on foot, but were quickly chased down by officers.
The bait car technology also allows a senior officer to shut off the car's ignition from the PSB. In some bait cars that have electronic door locks, that same officer can also lock the doors. Plus, as soon as thieves get into a bait car, a hidden video camera tapes their every move.
The boys' capture marks the beginning of a police public education campaign about the bait cars in an effort to reduce Winnipeg's stubbornly high auto theft rate.
Police sources say that over the coming months, the bait cars will be parked in shopping mall parking lots. Polo Park and St. Vital have already tentatively agreed to the plan. Police will put up signs in the area warning prospective thieves that any car they steal could be a police bait car. "It's to create paranoia among youth," MPI's Ward said. "You want them thinking that any car they take could be like stepping into a mousetrap."
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