Stash-House Stings Carry Real Penalties for Fake Crimes

Law-enforcement officials say that undercover work helps them catch sophisticated criminals when more traditional methods have failed, but many operations are open-ended and indiscriminate. They simply lay a trap and see who falls in. In 2006, the New York City Police Department launched Operation Lucky Bag, placing backpacks and purses around the subway system and waiting to catch the people who took them. It resulted in more than two hundred arrests. Two years later, according to New Orleans City Business, local police parked a car loaded with Budweiser, candy, cigarettes, and cans of . . .