This is the most chilling bait car video that seasoned auto theft investigators from around the world have ever seen. It demonstrates unpredictable and volatile behaviour exhibited by a young man high on crystal meth, or methamphetamine, a highly addictive and destructive drug that is widely available and cheap to buy. This video also shows just how dangerous auto theft is.
Auto theft is not just a property crime, but as you will see in this video, it presents a very clear threat to the safety of the public. This incident occurred in on June 6, 2004 when a well known 28-year-old car thief drove up to a parked bait truck in rural Langley in a stolen vehicle. (Between the years 1997 and 2004, he had been charged with 123 criminal offences.) He dumped the first stolen vehicle and then stole the bait truck. As he drove off in the bait truck, the suspect pulled out a loaded handgun and tried fourteen times to fire it indiscriminantly out the window. It appears that the gun was jammed and he was unable to fire it, but his body language indicates that he fully expected it to. The suspect then began casing cars and stopped numerous times to break into three vehicles in order to steal property from them. Soon a police officer who was dispatched to the location of the bait truck in the City of Abbostford arrived on scene while the suspect was out of the truck breaking into cars. As soon as the suspect saw the police car, he accellerated and reached speeds in excess of 140 Km/h while screaming "Oncoming" at the top of his lungs whenever he approached stop signs or red lights. The suspect struck three separate vehicles before dumping the bait truck, stealing a Honda Accord (that had a steering wheel lock on it) and escaping.
The suspect was identified through the bait car video which clearly reinforced the belief that he posed a significant risk to the safety of the public. A large manhunt began involving IMPACT, Surrey RCMP Auto Theft, bike and dog sections, Langley RCMP Street Enforcement Unit, Port Moody Street Crime Unit, the Integrated Emergency Response Team, the South Fraser Emergency Reponse Team, and Air-1, the RCMP's helicopter based at YVR. On June 22, the suspect was spotted behind the wheel of a stolen vehicle in the City of Langley. During the surveillance on the suspect, he stole a second vehicle, this time a Ford F150 from an underground parking lot in Surrey. Due to the excessive speeds the suspect was driving at even without him being aware that he was being followed, Air-1 was called in to provide coverage from the air. The suspect eventually spotted the helicopter, and in an attempt to flee from it, he drove through numerous fences and backyards at a townhouse complex in the Newton area of Surrey. Finally, after ramming the gate of an underground parking lot, he ran inside a large grocery story and fled out the back door into the waiting arms of officers who had surrounded it. The suspect was held in custody for a year awaiting his trial. He was recently sentenced to a four year prison term as a result of 24 charges that stemmed from numerous incidents, including the theft of the bait truck.
This suspect is believed to be one of the most prolific car thieves in the history of British Columbia. Information received points toward a minimum of three or four car thefts per day. This theft rate combined with a methamphetamine addiciton, his being armed with a handgun, and the dangerous manner that he would drive stolen vehicles, places him as a serious threat to the safety of both the public and police.
Why didn't police disable the engine right away?
At the time of this incident, the bait car program had been up and running for only one month. The engine disabling policy at that time dictated that a bait car engine should only be disabled if the bait car is being driven slowly or is stopped, so that the driver would not lose power steering and power brakes. When this bait truck first took off from police, the responding officer called for the engine to be disabled, but this request was denied since the dispatcher could see the high speeds of the truck on the computer monitor and followed the policy that was in effect at that time. As the vehicle fled and didn't slow down, an attempt to disable the engine was made, but the cellular coverage in this particlar area of rural Aldergrove was weak and electronic communication between the dispatch centre and the bait truck was lost for a long period of time. When communications were re-established, the suspect was getting out of the truck and stealing his next vehicle to escape.
What has IMPACT done to prevent this from happening again?
After this incident, the entire event was reviewed in detail. Extensive high speed bait car engine disabling testing was conducted that proved that the driver of a bait car will maintain control of both steering and braking at high speeds after the engine has been disabled. A training video was made that was sent out to every police department in the Lower Mainland. Policy was revised, and officers and dispatchers were re-trained. Now, the engine on a bait car will be disabled immediately if a suspect is driving dangerously or is fleeing from police, even if a police officer is not following the bait car.
Was this a failure of the bait car program?
No, we see this as a success. If the suspect did not steal our bait truck, he would have stolen another non-bait vehicle and we would never have seen just how violent and dangerous this suspect is. The video tape from the bait truck resulted in his capture, and subsequent conviction and four year sentence. Had it not been for the bait truck video, the suspect would likely be stealing cars today instead of sitting in jail.
Why is the suspect's name not released?
It is highly unusual for police to release a crime video to the public after a trial. In this case, we want to educate the public about how destructive crystal meth is, and how dangerous auto theft is. We hope that showing this video could prevent someone from trying drugs for the first time. This message can be accomplished without releasing the name of the accused. The Federal Privacy Act prevents government agencies from releasing the names or images of people unless there is a public need to do so. In this case, there isn't and the story can be told just as easily without his name being mentioned.
