Press Release Summary = The first person caught stealing a satellite navigation (sat nav) system from a dummy car set up by Gwent police has made an appearance in court.
Press Release Body = The first person caught stealing a satellite navigation (sat nav) system from a dummy car set up by Gwent police has made an appearance in court.
Last month, Gwent police unveiled plans to deploy a series of rat-trap cars at crime hotspots across the county in a bid to catch thieves in the act, reports the BBC.
Each car was filled with valuables such as direction-finding devices, mobile phones and laptops and then fitted with a hidden CCTV camera.
And two days after the operation began, a 13-year-old boy was pictured throwing a brick through the window of one of the cars and reaching in to steal a sat nav device.
The unnamed thief has now appeared at Cwmbran youth court, where he pleaded guilty to charges of theft and breaching an existing anti-social behaviour order.
Moreover, it has also emerged that the boy, now 14, was behind a recent garage burglary in which a £350 motorbike was stolen.
The youth will be sentenced later this month and chair of the bench Richard Morris took the opportunity in court to urge him to change before it is too late.
\"You can\'t go around affecting peoples\' lives in this way. It\'s time for a change,\" he said.
And the boy\'s mother has admitted that she struggles to control her child at the moment.
\"He just does his own thing,\" she told the court. \"He won\'t listen to me.\"
Meanwhile, Detective Inspector Richard Williams of Gwent police said that the incident should serve as a warning to all motorists.
\"The footage from this particular case shows that it only took a matter of seconds to break into the car and steal the satellite navigation system,\" he said.
\"So even if you are parking outside a shop or outside your home, even it is for a matter of minutes, don\'t leave anything on display.\"
It is not the first example of dummy cars being deployed in theft hotspots across the UK.
Last month, Leicestershire constabulary revealed plans to position capture vehicles in crime-ridden parts of Loughborough, which are to be filled with expensive items such as sat nav devices.
And rat-trap cars have also been placed in Crewe and Nantwich, according to the Northwich Guardian.
In this case, each vehicle is equipped with an external SmartWater spray, which fires an invisible liquid at people who come too close.
This spray only shows up in ultra-violet light, meaning that police officers who arrest a suspect can easily check if they have recently been in the vicinity of a dummy car.
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