95% of the time when i leave home i have at least one child with me. my 8-year-old now that he s big enough he likes to sit in the front. had i not just taken him to school he would have been right there when it happened. the fact nobody was in the passenger seat is a miracle. critics complained it only happened because she was busy filming when she should have been paying closer attention to the road. cobb says it was no different than someone smoking a cigarette or taking a drink or all the things people do while driving. it happened so fast that i don t think there was any reaction at all that would have changed anything. not for the better, i mean, it could have gone worse. for what it was, i was really lucky. a car thief falls right into a police trap when she takes off in a bait car. she decided she was going to take a car that day and picked our. come on, open up the door. keep the hands visible. but it s the suspect who catches the police by surprise.
with the car stopped and the doors automatically locked, the suspect knows he s in trouble. but he s going to try and make a run for it. somehow after banging on the locked door with what appears to be a laptop computer, the suspect makes his escape. but he doesn t get far. hollenbeck and harvey track the suspect as he runs from the car and hops a fence on to angel park golf course. i start talking to the assignment desk, the producer. get us on air. we got a guy running on the golf course just jumped out of a stolen car. as soon as he got over the fence, they started to break in. what have you got? we ve got a car here that just fled a bait car. he tried to steal a vehicle. he s trying to run away from police who just responded to the location of the vehicle.
the bait car, a red chrysler sebring is stolen just down the street from the station. an automatic alert is triggered when the door is opened. once the activation is received, all i know is that it s moving 20 miles an hour west on division street. the bait car is headed towards james greenwell. and when the suspect drives by greenwell s cruiser, the officer is surprised to see who s behind the wheel. as it goes by i see who was in it. i was shocked. the suspect was an elderly female. obviously an elderly female, totally out of the norm for an auto theft suspect or somebody taking a bait vehicle. i was double checking my facts to make sure that was the right car. as seen in this video, shot from the camera embedded in the dash of the bait car, the suspect enters the car and after finding the keys left lying on the seat and placing her shopping cart in the back drives off.
i was a little taken back on the operator of the vehicle. totally out of the norm. july 28th, 2008. arlington, texas. detective jesse minton of the arlington police department auto and theft unit is alerted that a bait car has been broken into. bait cars rigged with cameras and gps tracking equipment are used by police departments nationwide to catch thieves in areas where auto theft is a recuring problem. we pick a car that looks like cars that are most stolen. we take the time and install the equipment. we lock the doors remotely. record everything inside with video cameras and microphones. then we deploy them to a place where we have a crime problem or persons stealing cars in the area. we re basically fishing with the bait.
there. over 500,000 buildings damaged. now, back to caught on camera. welcome back to caught on camera. i m contessa brewer. just like our last video, a thief is caught on camera inside a bait car. but this time the suspect makes a mad dash for freedom. and leads police and a television news crew and a maintenance worker on a wild chase through an 18-hole golf course. may 5th, 2008. las vegas. metro police have placed an unlocked bait car in the parking lot of the angel park golf club to lure car thieves who ve been targeting the area. it s early in the morning but someone s already bitten. the car thief finds the keys in the center console of the cadillac escalade, gets into the driver s seat and takes off. checking to make sure he isn t being followed. but unbeknownst to him,