Bait Car (2007–2012) User Reviews

Stealing is Stealing no matter the race.

[acbb · 5/10 · 11 August 2016]

I loved the show. Maybe, during it's run car thefts may have gone down? Where the vehicles were placed should have had no bearing on a persons decision to commit theft. I love the real life stuff where if, you can't go the time don't commit the crime should apply

I saw many characters that had drugs and long extensive histories of taking stuff that didn't belong to them. Racial profiling didn't apply in the cases I saw many were career criminals that deserved to be arrested and convicted of what they were doing.

think of the people living in those areas that were affected by the actions of these folks?

What about those that come from other places or Cities to target certain neighborhoods?

Boring and pointless on all levels

[jediforce10 · 1/10 · 22 May 2011]

Bait Car has got to be one of the most boring, and most repetitive shows I have ever seen on TV. The premise is that cops set up Bait Cars in areas that criminals have been stealing them from. An episode of the series works like this. Cops plant car, criminals come and steal, cops follow, cops shut car down, criminals are caught and questioned, and repeat for 30 minutes. That is literally all there is to this show. Sure every once in a very blue moon, a citizen will report the bait car, but that's really it to variety. There's no tension at all to the chases at all either. The criminals always get caught which is good, but there's no high speed chases or stand outs or anything like that. Some have said that it helps catch criminals, but I think car thieves who watch this show will not go for the cars with keys inside, and learn to hot wire a vehicle instead. It's so pointless and it's just so stupid. I hope this show gets canned really fast.

Final thoughts: Unless you want a show that will bore you to death, and has no real action or tension to it, then stay far away from Bait Car, and put on World's Dumbest instead.

Real reality

[crash21 · 9/10 · 15 June 2010]

I don't understand why people have given this show such a low rating. Honestly, I think "Bait Car" might be even better than "Cops", and I'm a big fan of "Cops". These shows teach you that reality shows can be made of truly real-life moments in reality, and not just of stupid games playing around with people's lives.

I think "Bait Car" has some really memorable, and comical moments. One classic moment is where the girls take the bait car, get trapped in it and scream "oh my god! we're in a stolen vehicle!" Well, duh it's stolen, you stole it!

"Bait Car" really shows you how many people just can't say "no" to a simple car with keys and an open door. And every once in a while, there's a nice ending with someone being honest and locking the car up so it doesn't get stolen, or calling the police to (unknowingly) report their own car.

cops need to get a life

[carmin0202 · 1/10 · 26 March 2014]

i don't understand why cops got nothing better to do than try to set people up all the time its pretty sad that their setting people up with perfect opportunities to steal a car i mean come on now.. yes their thieves their setting up but seriously don't we have anything better to do than putting people in jail for car theft. how bout get their lazy asses busy and start looking for some of these missing kids and investigate real crimes.. car theft although its a common thing the point is its not a person to person crime its a property crime its not like car jacking or robbery its just pathetic were putting people in jail for car theft to crowd the prison systems for car theft when these people are obviously broke to begin with and will never pay their debt to society back for this crime

Fun Show to Watch

[benjaminhweaver · 10/10 · 5 May 2015]

"Bait Car" is a great show. It is both fun and educational. I like to watch this show with my sons, so that they can see what happens when you do the wrong things with your life.

***plot spoilers below***

The plot is always the same, but it never gets old: a faked arrest leads to leaving the bait car on the side of the road, which is looked over repeatedly by potential criminals, until one of them finally jumps in the car and attempts to steal it. It is a lot like fishing; there is just something thrilling about seeing something take the bait. From there, "unhooking" the "fish" can get interesting. Some try to smash their way out. Some jump crazily around the cabin. Some go quietly. Some even ALMOST get away.

There needs to be more shows like this that show how police try to improve their neighborhoods by targeting high-crime areas and remove criminals. The amazing part of this show is that, on "Bait Car", the criminals lock themselves away...the cops just watch the show.

Targets Blacks and Latinos exclusively

[tune881-994-191381 · 1/10 · 7 May 2014]

It goes like this: Assemble your team of cops, take your team and your Bait Car to an area as heavily Black and/or Latino as you can find, drop the car off while making it as obvious as possible that it's unlocked and the keys are in it, and wait for the dumb-ass. Once in a great while that dumb-ass will be other than Black or Latino, but it's obvious that AREAS that are primarily Black and/or Latino is the overriding prerequisite for deciding where to drop the car. You'll watch the featured city's PD "set up" in supposedly "where the car thefts are most-often occurring", but almost never include (for the show,at least) an operation in any high-theft area that ISN'T populated primarily by Blacks and/or Latinos. The show appears to be trying to advance the premise that us White folks aren't committing these crimes as much, by as much as possible avoiding placing the bait where us White folks could see it.

Great Show ..

[johnin-49503 · 10/10 · 24 April 2023]

This show was so good ... it did not target anyone except for criminals. Hopefully law enforcement still use this technique to capture criminals.. sad that some reviews lie and claim it targeted anyone behind criminals.

Many of the episodes show someone in distress emergency situations... they would frantically leave car unlocked or running ... and leave quickly.. it usually did not take long for a low life criminal to then attempt to steal the vehicle.... It is sad that some people feel stealing is only way .... It would be so awesome if someone could revive this show ...

None of the episodes targeted any specific race .. it only targeted criminals regardless of anything.

Same plot every episode, you can't go wrong!

[georgestephenwalker · 10/10 · 9 May 2020]

Bait car is practically the same episode every week and it never gets old. The police set a car in an area and wait for a thief to steal the car. Once the thief has driven a block or two the cut the power to the car and arrest the thief.