WARWICK, RI—Hiding in plain sight can be an effective strategy, but not for two city teenagers who were caught stealing from police cars in the front parking lot of the police station on Sunday night.

Police said Shawn Bartis, 18, and a 17-year-old juvenile were arrested at police headquarters as they were tampering with and stealing from cars parked outside the building, including a marked cruiser from which they took the hubcaps and were attempting to steal the siren control box and spotlight. The two were arrested at around 7 p.m. after two detectives returned to the station in their unmarked detective car and saw two suspicious males in and around vehicles parked in the front lot.

One can imagine the surprise of the detectives who watched them before they approached them in their "discretely parked car in the lot," police said in a post on their Facebook page. Police said their investigation was "very quick."

"You can't make this stuff up," police said, ending their post with a quote from Forrest Gump: "Stupid is as stupid does."

A relative took issue with the post on Facebook and said that it made it "look worse than what it really is" describing the alleged act as a mistake.