Vegas Undercover

Chris Hansen Correspondent • Profile

It's midnight on the bustling Las Vegas strip and the high life is in full swing. But in a dark corner of town, something else is going down. This man is stealing a car.

What he doesn't know—is that the police are watching. And so are we.

On the other side of Las Vegas, these people are talking business. They're selling stolen merchandise. This woman has cars.

Brittany (hidden camera footage): ...sportscar, the truck.

So does he...

Adam: I can get brand new Mustangs all day long.

This guy has guns.

Chris Woods: A government special.

This man is selling counterfeit money...

Bryan Rusty King: I got two thousand on me.

....he's even holding a class on how to make the fake bills.

Undercover Officer: What does that do...?

Bryan Rusty King: Just cleaning that cr*p off of it.

They all think they're dealing with other crooks. 

Chris Hansen, Dateline NBC: Between the two of these guys, ... they're capable of a crime spree. 

But they're really selling to officers...

Undercover Officer: How bout 500 bucks for everything?

Back on the strip—this man and woman are talking about sex...

Suspect: I mean, a pretty girl like yourself can get as much money as she's looking for.

He thinks she's a prostitute. And he seems to be offering his services as a pimp.

Undercover officer: ...somebody to give me guidance?

Male: To give you guidance, to give you guidance.

He doesn't know that she's really a detective—and that we're watching from only a few feet away.

He is very confident, he's not even looking around...

On Dateline Monday, you'll go behind the scenes like never before with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, undercover as it happens to solve crimes. And you'll hear what suspected criminals have to say for themselves.

More than 30 million tourists will visit Las Vegas this year. And while they eat, drink and play, another side of Vegas is hard at work: criminals scamming, stealing cars and selling sex. That's where the officers come in.

Over the past year we've been watching undercover operations of the Las Vegas Police Department....one of the most proactive in the country.

Sheriff Doug Gillespie: You have to be creative in your approach to law enforcement. The criminal element is, so you have to be, as well.

Sheriff Doug Gillespie is the man in charge.

Sheriff Gillespie: If you continue to go after them the same way that you always have, well, you're gonna get the—the same results.

One of the biggest problems? Car theft.

Video   Vegas Undercover: Looking for a date with a… cop? Dateline NBC meets a woman who may act like a prostitute, but is actually an undercover officer. Dateline NBC

Sheriff Gillespie: Auto theft's a prime example. We were goin' after auto theft from traditional ways. And then—we brought in some—non-traditional ways. 

Enter members of a special auto theft unit called the Viper Squad. Lt. Bobby Duval, who runs the unit, has a warning for car thieves.

Lt. Duvall: Las Vegas is not the place to come and steal cars. It really isn't. 

His detectives use bait cars that are strategically placed to present an opportunity for potential thieves...all rigged with hidden cameras.

Lt. Duvall: I mean, we've got a state of the art bait car program. We have one of the largest fleets in the United States and we have guys that know how to work ‘em.

Tonight, the bait car is a 2006 Escalade.

The officers fake a fight between a man and a woman.

Where'd they get the idea?

Lt. Duvall: It is based on actual cases where people have gotten their car stolen.

In the commotion, they pretend to abandon the bait car, still running.

This man spots the car, gets in, and looks around. But he doesn't take the bait - and leaves. Moments later, this SUV pulls up across the street. This man gets in and begins to drive away. And within minutes, he pulls over. That's when police move in.

They arrest two men. The driver and his accomplice, a man named Frankie, who I get a chance to talk to.

Chris Hansen: Chris Hansen, Dateline NBC.

Frankie: That’s where I rememeber you from...To Catch a Predator.

Chris Hansen: Yeah, you watch To Catch a Predator?

Frankie: Yeah, yeah, I watched that. Yeah.

Chris Hansen: Yeah, you did? Yeah? You like it?

Frankie: I like that you guys catch 'em 'cause it's crazy people are nowadays.

Chris Hansen: Well, guess what we're catching now?

Frankie: Car theft.

Chris Hansen: Auto thieves.

Frankie: Auto thieves. There you go.

Chris Hansen: So tell me what happened tonight.

Frankie: There was people fighting over there. There was a white guy and a white lady fighting and then the white lady got out of the car and took off with the white guy in another truck. So me and my friend went down there to see what was going on and then we just took the truck.

Chris Hansen: So was it just an impulse thing, spur of the moment?

Frankie: Pretty much, yeah.

Chris Hansen: Right. You're in a bit of a jam right now, though.

Frankie: Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

Chris Hansen: Now how old are you?

Frankie: 19.

Chris Hansen: 19.

Chris Hansen: Have you ever been busted before?

Frankie: I've never done nothing wrong before.

Chris Hansen: Never taken any cars, gone to jail.

Frankie: Nope. Clean record.

Chris Hansen: Been to court?

Frankie: Been to court once.

Chris Hansen: For what?

Frankie: For driving without a permit, that's about it.

Chris Nansen: What's your biggest regret tonight?

Frankie: Getting in the truck and going over there. That's the biggest regret that I have right now. 

Chris Hansen: So you're facing serious charges here tonight.

Frankie: Yeah.

Chris Hansen: At 19 years old.

Frankie: Uhuh. It was just one bad judgment call. That's all it really was.

Frankie has not yet entered a plea.

Detective Duvall hopes his arrest serves as a warning to others.

Lt. Duvall: First of all, hopefully, people will get the message that you don't steal cars in Las Vegas. Second message is that if you do, there's a good chance that you're gonna run into one of ours.

Unfortunately, that doesn't always happen. Most of the time, there are real victims. This woman had her car stolen at gunpoint.

Chris Hansen: Did he point the gun at you?

Monique Chouquer: Yes. Well, the whole time it was pointed it at me.

Would the thief who did it ever be found?

Undercover Officer: Dude, what's up?

That leads us to another undercover operation going on in Vegas. 

We're watching that one too, and once again...the bad guys don’t know it.

More from NBC News broadcasts Obama pays tribute to Kennedy honorees   Afghan exit not a ‘drop-dead deadline,’ Clinton says Illinois makes last stand against Asian carp Knox’s father: Verdict ‘a travesty of justice’ Now on msnbc.com: Real-time news Willie Geist's week in review   Sorkin details Comcast-NBC deal Follow on Twitter: Making a Difference

MORE FROM THE HANSEN FILES

The Hansen Files Section Front

The few, the proud, the green: Eco-cops   The debt investigation continues   Debt trap: View original report   From radical to reformer: A new mission Inside the terror plot that 'rivaled 9/11'   From respected school teacher to FBI's most wanted New details on teacher on Most Wanted list See FBI's map of his whereabouts   Inmate scams widows out of thousands The Hansen Files Section Front   Add The Hansen Files headlines to your news reader: