Lawrence police to GPS crooks: 'Come and get it'

By Mark E. Vogler
Staff Writer

May 12, 2008 12:51 am

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LAWRENCE — Police have planted a fake GPS device in a "bait car" to catch thieves stealing what has become one of the hottest items in auto burglaries throughout the city in the past year.

"We're not keeping this a secret and we want to get the word out on the street that we're doing this," police Chief John Romero said.

"Hopefully, the word will get around to the people who are going after this stuff that the truck or car you break into might very well be a bait car that police are watching. We are going to give them something to think about. If we do this often enough, people might think twice," Romero said.

The theft of GPS units — electronic devices that gather real-time location information from global positioning satellites and display that information on digital maps — has become a trendy crime throughout the nation. But it didn't really become noticeable to the Lawrence police until last fall.

"We only had eight GPS thefts reported for the first eight months of last year — then at least 16 over the last four months," Romero said.

"It took a little longer, but it's become a trend for us, too. In response to this problem, we have put a bait car out there with a fake GPS that looks like one, except it's not functional. But nobody is going to know it's a bait car until we arrest them," he said.

Lawrence police experimented with a bait car in December. But cold and frosted windows in the vehicle used didn't attract the attention of GPS thieves who couldn't see inside the car.

Now that spring is here, police are trying it again.

On May 5, officers teamed up with detectives of the special operation division to install a fake GPS in a city vehicle at 265 Park St. near Willow Street. The GPS was placed on the dashboard and attached to the windshield with suction cups. A $100 cell phone was placed in a cup holder and the car doors and windows left open, waiting for opportunistic criminals.

It took just 15 minutes for the bait car to draw interest, Detective Carl Farrington noted in his report.

Police watched a man get into the car and pull on the power cords of the cell phone and GPS, which had been purposely wrapped around the cup holder to slow down thieves.

When Detective Farrington and Officer Shaun McLellan approached, they startled the man, who froze for a moment, then bolted.

Carlos Cruz, 22, of 267 Park St., was caught and arrested on charges of breaking and entering into a vehicle. Coincidentally, it was the third automobile on the street broken into on that day, police said. The GPS and cell phone were found on the ground where Cruz dropped them, and he had a syringe and needle on him.

Romero said GPS units are easy items to steal and sell for thieves who might also have a drug habit.

Last week, the bait car was back on the street, placed in another GPS "hot spot" identified by the department's crime analysis unit.

"We're going to be throwing different types of vehicles out there so there's no set pattern. And we're going to move around to areas that have already been established by crime analysis as problem areas," Romero said.

"A lot of the thefts are coming from our commercial vehicles. We've had ambulances where GPSs have been taken from. Utility company trucks, cable company trucks, too. They all have GPS. It might wind up in one of those.

"We'll keep the thieves guessing by using different bait cars," Romero said. "And we'll be waiting for them."

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