Metro thieves looking for riders near doors

WASHINGTON - Crooks on Metro are now taking their cue from a familiar phrase heard throughout the transit system: "Step back, doors closing."

The Metro Transit Police Department says there has been an increase in robberies, specifically with people who are sitting or standing near the doors of trains and using electronic equipment.

"What we have seen a pattern of is people who are wearing their iPods or holding their iPhones in their hands and the train pulls into the station. The bad guy will go rip the electronic device out of their hands, just as the doors are starting to close. They will jump out, the doors will close and the robber makes good their escape," Deputy Chief of the Metro Transit Police Jeff Delinski tells WTOP. "They are very hard to catch."

The most up-to-date statistics from Metro Transit Police show that through July of this year, there have been 454 robberies on Metro. At the same mark last year, there were 328 robberies on the transit system.

To counter, transit police are using decoys to lure-in unsuspecting criminals.

"We have plain-clothes officers that will use electronic devices and on occasion, they themselves will get robbed," says Delinski. "The surprising thing to the bad guy is that they are usually surrounded by 10 or so plain clothes officers who are keeping an eye on that decoy. The bad guy ends up getting locked up very quickly."

Between May and August, more than 50 people were arrested using this undercover operation.

Despite the increase in robberies, Metro Transit Police say crime on the system is low. For every million customers, about 3 are the victim of a Part I crime. A Part I crime can be anything from robbery, to aggravated assault, to motor vehicle theft.

(Copyright 2009 by WTOP. All rights reserved.)