Subsequent time burglars hit a home in Atherton, they could be strolling right into a entice and a fast journey to jail.
Confronted with an uptick in residential burglaries, police within the rich Northern California city determined this 12 months to attempt an uncommon tactic: the “Bait Home Program.”
“We don’t need to do nothing and simply let it occur,” mentioned Cmdr. Daniel Larsen of the Atherton Police Division. “We need to be proactive and deter.”
About 50 owners locally have volunteered their properties for police division’s “Bait Home Program,” Larsen mentioned. As a part of this system, police outfit sure priceless objects within the properties with GPS gadgets to trace the property and, hopefully, lead them straight to the criminals.
This system started taking form in February, when officers seen a surge of burglaries within the city of about 7,000 residents, he mentioned.
Final 12 months, Atherton reported 17 residential burglaries throughout all the 12 months. To this point this 12 months, town has already had 15 burglaries.
That’s when one of many officers got here up with the concept of a “Bait Home,” Larsen mentioned.
Police chosen the primary residence final week, and are retaining an inventory of householders which have volunteered their residence to outfit belongings within the properties with GPS gadgets.
As soon as the GPS gadgets are added, police will obtain an alert when the article is moved. That implies that even when residence alarm programs fail to inform police of a housebreaking, the motion of the objects can secretly sign police as nicely, he mentioned.
Police are additionally utilizing license plate-reading cameras on the town along side this system, he mentioned. Investigators can monitor the GPS sign and use the cameras and the real-time location of the stolen objects to comply with the motion of the autos to trace the burglars and the stolen belongings wherever they go.
“If we are able to’t apprehend on the scene, then we’re simply in a position to monitor the property wherever it goes,” he mentioned.
If the belongings are inadvertently moved within the residence, police have a plan to contact the home-owner to keep away from any confusion.
“The very last thing we need to do is present up at somebody’s residence once they’re simply hanging out and redecorating,” he mentioned.
Larsen gained’t say what number of homes are getting used at a time, or the place, however mentioned investigators are attempting to be selective and strategic to discover a sample for the focused properties. Owners are additionally being instructed that, if their residence was not chosen presently, they may very well be contacted afterward.
No arrests have been made, but.
Regardless of the identify of this system, Larsen mentioned, the properties being chosen are usually not being made extra “interesting” to burglars.
The truth is, he mentioned, he hopes that phrase of this system itself could be a deterrent for burglars pondering of focusing on Atherton properties. It might be only a handful of properties fitted with these “GPS” traps, he mentioned, however he hopes burglars really feel like each house is a entice.
