‘Holiday Surprise’ Targets Car Burglars : Crime: Police stakeout aims at curbing theft at shopping malls. It gets off to a slow start.

Message for thieves: If it looks too good to be true, maybe it is.

To crack down on car burglaries at San Fernando Valley shopping malls, police Tuesday launched operation “Holiday Surprise.”

A brightly wrapped Christmas present and a cellular phone were left inside an unattended convertible, with the top down, at Panorama Mall. A dozen hidden cops watched.

After several hours, no takers, even after police added a couple of bags filled with wrapped gifts. Nor did police have any success when they ran through the program the day before at upscale Topanga Plaza in Canoga Park.

“We need to find a way to park the car inside the mall,” quipped one detective, when it became apparent Tuesday that the stakeout was off to a slow start.

The LAPD launched the program in an effort to curb car burglaries, which they say jump into the hundreds during the busy holiday shopping season. More than 16,000 cars had been burglarized throughout the San Fernando Valley by the end of October, a 1.3% increase over the previous year, police said.

But on Tuesday, no thieves took the bait.

“There have been a lot of complaints,” said LAPD Detective Bob Arzuman, of the Valley Bureau’s auto theft task force. “We’re trying to address the concerns of the citizens.”

One businessman who complained, Flip Smith, said he was amazed to learn that the operation had failed to deliver a single suspect in its first few hours.

“I can’t believe it, we thought this would be an absolute field day,” said Smith, co-chair of the Sepulveda and Van Nuys Boulevard Business Watch. Smith, who also owns a tire store in Sepulveda, said he had high hopes that police would nab a burglar like the one who stole a cellular phone from his car just last month.

Business watch members have been asked to post flyers warning car thieves that “The next car you break into may be the one that police are watching.”

“Steal at your own risk!!!”