Wandsworth car thieves duped into stealing bugged cars

Cars, vans, mopeds and bicycles are being fitted with satellite tracking technology and video recording equipment to monitor unsuspecting crooks.

The honey traps are planted in vehicle crime hotspots and left unattended, often with satellite navigation systems, or sat-navs, on display.

Inspector Dale Anderton from the borough’s safer neighbourhoods teams (SNT) said: “The aim of this initiative is to make offenders think twice before breaking into vehicles.

“Thieves need to know, any car they steal - or steal from - could easily be a police decoy vehicle and we will be waiting to arrest them.”

The long-term operation involves rotating the vehicles and locations on a regular basis and two arrests have been made in the first three weeks.

Last week a man in his 30s was arrested after he broke into a decoy car and stole an item, which police traced to an address in Battersea.

On Tuesday a man in his 20s was arrested after a bicycle was stolen and traced to an address in Tooting.

Decoy cars have been used successfully to catch offenders up and down the country, as well as Wandsworth, in the past.

Sergeant Ben Bond of Wandsworth Common SNT, who runs the scheme, said: “Reducing theft from motor vehicles is a priority for many wards across Wandsworth borough.

"The initiative was seen to be the next logical step in reducing motor vehicle crime and complimented other strategies already in place.”

Insp Anderton added: “Our warning to thieves is, Wandsworth police have successfully used this tactic to arrest thieves and those handling stolen goods, so don’t chance it. Any vehicle could be being watched and tracked by a team of officers.”

He urged drivers to remove all items from unattended cars, including the entire sat-nav system and any suction mark it might make on the window.

If you have information on car crime, call your local police station or 0300 123 1212.

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