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It's a sentence from an Rpg video game. There was this guy who was hurt and one of the dialog choices was a question "You want me to call an ambulance" and this is the answer he gave me:

"What? No! I've got a record back east. I'm heat bait. Don't touch that phone! No God Damn Cops!"

What does this sentence mean (especially the bold parts)?

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  • Not even urban dictionary has this, which suggests that it is "slang" invented by the author of the game, and has not real use.
    – James K
    Commented Nov 3, 2021 at 22:20

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I'm not familiar with "heat bait," and don't see relevant search results for it. But we can piece things together:

  • Heat can have a colloquial meaning of trouble with authority or the law ("If we get caught, I won't take the heat!")
  • Bait can mean something that attracts another thing, as fish bait attracts fish, so perhaps the character is saying he attracts trouble with the law.
  • A record, in this case, is a criminal record; the man is saying he was convicted of a crime that is on record.
  • Back east refers to a location (if this is in the United States, then the eastern part of the country). Perhaps the character came west to be less likely to be recognized.
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  • Heat can also mean the use or presence of a gun. If the person had a sufficiently bad police record, local police might approach him with guns drawn. 'Packing heat' means 'carrying a gun'.
    – Michael Harvey
    Commented Nov 3, 2021 at 22:01
  • There's a chance "heat bait" has some specific meaning in the world of Vampire: The Masquerade, but I haven't played the game myself to know.
    – Showsni
    Commented Nov 4, 2021 at 2:06
  • Since the character says "No goddamn cops!" it seems very likely to this US English speaker that the character means just "police" when he says "heat".
    – stangdon
    Commented Nov 4, 2021 at 15:38
  • "The heat" can also mean "the police" directly.
    – randomhead
    Commented Nov 4, 2021 at 16:08

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