| Intricate |
08-13-2007 04:47 PM |
The official report on that guy:
"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. "
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