I had no idea police could be so creative!

Check this story out (1, 2)… in 2002, Karen and Krista Hart, three year old twins, drowned in a lake in Newfoundland. The police suspected they’d actually been killed by their father, Nelson, but had no way to prove it. They were, however, highly motivated to do so.

So, in 2005, they set up a sting operation in which undercover cops pretended to be members of a criminal gang who invited Hart to join them. In return for performing a series of errands, like transporting boxes of what he was told were stolen credit cards, he was given cash, taken on trips to racetracks and casinos, and allowed to meet increasingly important members of this gang. Finally, four months in, he met a cop posing as the big boss on a yacht in Vancouver, who told him he could become a full-time member if he wanted — after a background check. Hart wanted in, and when the “gang” told him they’d heard the police were still looking into the deaths of his little girls, told all in order to gain their trust, and showed them where on the lake he’d killed his daughters. Hart was arrested a few days later, and is now in court, hearing the undercover police he’d befriended explain how they’d taken him down.

I don’t care that this guy was paid $15k for fake criminal activity. I’m glad they got the bastard somehow, and that he’s not getting out of jail anytime soon.

Incidentally, I’ve met undercover cops a few times before, trying to infiltrate perfectly legal activist groups to find out about (publicly advertised) demonstrations. And they were really bad at it! We always spotted them coming a long ways off. I guess cops find it easier to play thugs than hippies and anarchists. Anyways, going after people like Hart is clearly a much better use of their time.