While we're on the subject of embarrassing videos, let's take a peek at the one above, posted by the Dallas Police Department a few days ago. In it, a man breaks into a DPD bait car to steal the GPS device, and the department's asking if anyone knows who's responsible for the smash-and-grab. But I had a question for DPD spokesman senior corporal Kevin Janse: If it's a bait car, and the department had the car wired, why the need for the public heads-up?
Well, as it turns out, it wasn't a bait car, but a car with bait -- in this case, the GPS device, which officers had planned on using to track down whoever was dumb enough to break into the car to steal the thing.
"Unfortunately, the tracking device malfunctioned, and we lost track of it," Janse says. "But that is an extremely rare occurrence. I don't think we've had that occur yet since we started it at Northwest."
So, then, this could be classified as an "ironic crime"?
"Very
much so," Janse tells Unfair Park, "which is why we're appealing to the
public. In any other instance we would have immediately tracked down
the equipment and taken the subjects into custody within minutes. It's
a great program. Unfortunately, technology is what it is, and in this
instance it did not work in our favor."
