Vancouver Police Botch Bike Theft Sting

Vancouver police set up a sting operation to catch bike thieves: plant a tasty looking bike at a bike rack, wait for a bike thief to grab it, then nab 'em. Sounds easy enough, right? And it was: police arrested Gary Sharples moments after he stole the unlocked bicycle.

The problem: the police couldn't prove they owned the bike to begin with! No one at the police force could accurately say where the bike bait had come from.

The question in court wasn't whether Sharples took the bike - he clearly did - but rather if the Vancouver police owned it and would have thus been justified in using the bike as a lure. If anything, in the extreme, the judge could have initiated charged against the police to ascertain how they came about the bike in question! Of course, that didn't happen.

Vancouver also has a bait car program. In that setup, though, the cars used are actually owned by police. Perhaps the police aren't so ready to offer up their 2-wheel mode of transportation - at least until now! That, or the police department will obtain, with proper documentation, cheapo bikes in the future for their bike sting operation.