[willcipriano]

The costs of automobile theft going unpunshied in society is probably much greater than the cost of a helicopter at these population scales. For a low income person a car going stolen could set in motion a very costly chain of events. It can be incredibly disruptive.

[deepsun]

Yet I know cases when police returns a stolen car to it's owner, and never bothers to look for a thief, even though the car is left with a lot of junk (papers, receipts, personal items) that could lead to the thief easily.

And the cars are usually just found randomly, not really looked for.