My beef with these stings is that the cops usually use some cheap bike (wal-mart Mongoose, or worse) for bait. No intelligant theif would touch such a piece of junk, so all they do is bust another crack-head, while the big thieves remain active.

Once, I happened to encounter such a sting-the cops had an awful Roadmaster they must've just got from K-mart, leaning against the wall, with a not-too-hidden police officer sitting drinking coffee a few feet away. I went up to the officer and suggested they use better bait if they really want to get the big fish...

The other day there was a repeat of Cops on TV, and the Mesa, AZ police were doing a bike sting. They were using an overpriced poseur bike (Mercedes-Benz boutique bike, if I remember) with a retail price high enough to qualify for felony theft status. Yikes!