Problem is now, even worse than in the past,, a guy who gets busted stealing a $900 engine gets nothing more than a slap on the wrist,, most states misdemeanor petty theft is tops out around $1000,, that's a lot of light fingering before you get a felony charge or can expect to see any jail time,, worse case the guy busted will have to pick up some trash on the freeway or work at Good Will for a few weekends, If all you're going to do is require a few hours of Community Service for theft,, you're going to continue to have more and more theft...
So, If you have stuff that easy to walk off with,, you better have someone watching it constantly, or lock it up, because if you go all tough guy and beat someone up,, you're the one that's likely to end up in jail