Bait Car

"I was just moving it! The owner told me to!"

—A solid 40% of all suspects.

Tru TV Reality Show that follows police auto theft squads as they plant "bait cars" (police-owned cars rigged so they can be shut down via remote control).

Tropes used in Bait Car include:

• Awesome but Impractical: The bait car itself needs to be heavily modified at substantial expense to work properly, and when it is placed, apprehending the people driving off with it requires about a dozen officers on duty. After all that, the criminals are often charged with misdemeanors (unlawful driving/taking of a vehicle) and not felonies (grand theft auto). In one case, the judge dismissed the charges entirely, arguing that the methods the cops used in their particular baiting counted as entrapment.
• The Alleged Car: A few of the bait cars. L.A. has a '90s beige Camry with bad-taste aftermarket chrome rims. Not a bad car per se but hardly worth doing hard time for.
  • New Orleans' black Kia Borrego is a model hardly anyone actually bought. Being the only one like it in town probably counts as a fail for a bait car.
• Cool Car: Some of the others. Cadillac Escalades are popular.
• Genre Savvy: In later episodes it's getting more and more common for suspects to mention the possibility of being in a bait car or even holding the door ajar to prevent being magnetically locked in.
• Point and Laugh Show
• Schmuck Bait: The bait cars used in many of the show's episodes. A car like that in a neighborhood that shitty? Best case scenario, it's a bait car and you're about to get arrested and carted off to jail (and later humiliated on a cable television program). Worst case scenario, it belongs to someone who will shoot you in the face just for looking at his ride in a way he doesn't like. Either way, you're an idiot for messing with it.
• Stupid Crooks: Entire carloads of them.