Police credit bait car program for drop in car thefts during Olympics

VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) - Lower Mainland police say their Olympic Bait Car program deserves a gold medal.  It appears crooks paid attention to police warnings that bait cars would be set up at Olympic 'park and ride' lots.

RCMP Sergeant Gord Elias from the Auto Theft Task Force says only five cars parked in 250,000 Olympic parking spots over 17 days were stolen, and just one was a bait car.  Two suspects were arrested.  And  only eight theft from cars incidents were reported.  "And I'm happy to say that two of those were bait cars they broke into.  So we have video of the suspects and we anticipate arrests and charges in the near future."

Elias says their theft prevention plan worked exactly the way police hoped it would.