HOUSTON -- In northeast Houston, in the 3300 block of Liberty near Gregg, HPD parked a Ford vehicle, left the keys in it and a couple of suspects took the bait.

There are literally hundreds of vehicles that are stolen in our city every month, so HPD has equipped several cars and trucks with hidden cameras and microphones.

They track these so-called bait cars with laptops, and the program has been a tremendous success.

Police said its vehicle stolen Tuesday was taken by 29-year-old Willie Rougeau and 36-year-old André green. And they were prepared.

They didn’t want their fingerprints found, and hey appeared to be extremely paranoid.

The two seemed to exchange two rocks of crack cocaine before they split up. Eventually both got out of the car before HPD arrived, but the men and women working in the northeast tactical squad were able to track Rougeau and Green down.

Both were charged.

The auto theft division said it was another successful arrest in an area of Houston where vehicles are illegally taken every single day.