APD: Car thief steps into baited trap

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) - Police detectives say they busted an Albuquerque teen who stole what turned out to be a bait car planted by the Albuquerque Police Department early Saturday morning.

Angelo Godla, 18 was arrested on one count of auto theft after being accused of lifting the bait car in the southeast part of the city.

“As soon as he gets out of the neighborhood he thinks he’s in the clear, pulls over twice to rummage through the vehicle, try and go through the trunk,” Lt. Scott Lopez with the APD Property Crimes Unit said.

He drove around in the car for about seven minutes before being pulled over,  He gave up easily, police said.

It is no accident that car was lying in wait where it was.

“We look at past history for auto thefts, and based on that we can project with about 99 percent accuracy where a car is going to be stolen," Lopez said.  "We put our fleet of bait cars there, and this is a prime example that it works."

The lieutenant also said they are using that same strategy to tackle the growing number of warm-up thefts they’ve seen in the last few months.

“This month alone I think I’ve seen three or four come across my desk in the first week,” he said.

Between October and December 2010, Lopez said 14 warm-up thefts were reported.

During that same time period in 2011, 29 cars were stolen while left unattended and warming up.

Lopez told News 13 he believes the increase is due to people just being lackadaisical and not paying attention.

For crooks, he said, it is a crime of opportunity.

To try and curb the trend APD is deploying its bait cars in the mornings as well.

“We warm them up in people’s driveways, on the side of the streets, and we just sit there and wait for these guys that are victimizing the citizens to victimize us," Lopez said.  "The thing is, we’re going to catch them."