Two break and enter artists didn't discover the police were on their tail until their third theft of the evening.
That was when they both got out of the truck they were using as a getaway vehicle long enough for members of the Integrated Municipal Provincial Auto Crime Team (IMPACT) to make a safe arrest.
The undercover officers spotted the pair driving a Ford pickup truck with stolen plates in the Colossus Theatre parking lot shortly after midnight on Wednesday June 22.
When one of them got out and broke into a parked vehicle, the officers did not intervene because the driver of the truck could have tried to flee, provoking a potentially hazardous pursuit.
The IHIT officers followed the suspects to the Walnut Grove area where an insurance company was robbed by smashing out the front window with a crowbar.
The two then drove to Burnaby where they tried to break into a Subway restaurant in the 5000 block of Canada Way by again trying to smash out a front window with a crowbar.
This time, they both got out of the truck and were far enough from it for the police to move in.
There was a chase, but it was on foot and it was over quickly.
Now charged with two counts of break and enter, theft, possession of stolen property, possession of break-in instruments, and driving while disqualified is 22-year-old Cody John Ball of langley
And charged with two counts of break and enter, theft and possession of a prohibited weapon is 19-year-old Daniel Josiah Wagemans, also of Langley.
Both were said to be well known to police.