Baiting the Parking Lots

For 45 minutes, a young man sitting in his car at Panorama Mall glances at the Christmas presents and purse on the seat of a new black Camaro parked next to him.

The windows are open and the car is unlocked. The young man opens his own door. Then shuts it. Opens it again. Closes it again.

“We’re hoping the third time is the charm,” said an officer watching the man’s internal struggle from a van parked nearby.

It’s beginning to feel a lot like Christmas at malls and shopping centers, and not just because of the jolly shoppers and bright decorations.

The holiday season also brings out thieves mostly interested in the spirit of taking.

In one of their own holiday customs, undercover officers this week kicked off a series of sting operations in the San Fernando Valley.

Thousands of posters are being put up at Valley businesses that read, in part: “The next car you break into may be the one that the police are watching.”

“This isn’t a secret thing,” said LAPD Det. Bob Graybill, who leads CECAT, or Community Effort to Combat Auto Theft. “We want to tell everyone, ‘We’re here and we’re coming after you.’ ”

CECAT began “Operation Holiday Surprise” three years ago. But the unit’s overall effort to combat auto theft-related crimes in the Valley traces back to 1988. Auto theft was then a growing problem in Valley communities, Graybill said. A group of officers wanted to form a special unit to target the problem but officials said the department could not fund it.

The officers turned to insurance companies, car dealerships and other private industry, which all still provide support ranging from phones to cars and car services--everything but the officers’ salaries.

Today, the unit has a dozen officers representing the LAPD, California Highway Patrol, Department of Motor Vehicles and the National Insurance Crime Bureau.

Year-round, the unit combats auto thefts and related crimes. The officers, for instance, pay surprise visits to dismantling yards where stolen parts are often traded. They also crack down on mechanics who set up shop in their front yards.

Graybill said there is no similar unit elsewhere in the LAPD or California--particularly because of CECAT’s funding.

It was the community’s needs that brought about the first Operation Holiday Surprise in 1995. Car thefts in shopping areas such as Panorama Mall were a constant complaint--17,235 reports just in 1994. Traditionally, car theft increases after Thanksgiving.

In the first year of the operation, parking lot crimes, including purse snatching, dropped by 80% at some locations after only three arrests, Graybill said. Those crimes have dropped every year since.

“It sends would-be thieves a message: ‘Be careful,’ ” said Kelly Schachner, marketing director for Fallbrook Mall. Schachner this year helped coordinate the operation for Fallbrook and other West Valley malls.

This week the officers headed to Northridge Fashion Center. They cruised the parking lot looking for a spot near foot traffic to park the bait Camaro, as well as nearby parking spaces for their three observation vehicles.

After Officer Janine Green, dressed as a shopper, stepped out of the decoy car and into the south side of the mall, the “strike team” waited. And waited.

And waited.

There’s actually quite a bit of waiting. “It’s not as active as people think,” Graybill said.

The officers usually park the car at about 15 sites per day. The team targets career criminals and the officers have even scared away curious youngsters who probably did not have a mark on their record but appeared to be considering their first break-in.

Team members say some thieves work alone, standing outside the mall for long periods looking for opportunities.

Others, they said, arrive in cars; the driver serving as the lookout while accomplices march down the parking lot rows, quickly snatching items from open vehicles.

Last year the team arrested about a dozen people. Each had an extensive criminal history and many came from outside the Valley to steal, and at least one was armed, Graybill said.

At the Northridge mall, the crew waited about 15 minutes. No takers. Green returned from the mall. It was off to a nearby Kmart, then to a Home Depot a few miles away. Finally, Panorama Mall.

“Some people think police work is glamorous,” Graybill said, joking about the slow start to this year’s operation.

The young man at Panorama Mall, apparently persuaded by the better angels of his inner struggle, finally acted in the true spirit of the season. He ignored the bait. He will probably never know how close he came to spending the holidays behind bars.

The officers did not mind losing the arrest.

“It’s a good feeling that at least some people have the right spirit,” Officer Ben Meda said.

Said Graybill: “A lot of people looked but didn’t take anything. It tells you something.”