Anyone heard of this trick to nail a bike thief before;

Put an unlocked fixed bike without brakes on the top of a hill somewhere in a downtown area. Wait for someone to steal it and watch what happens. The most natural and quickest way for the bike thief is of course to go down the hill.

This happened in Stockholm I remember hearing of many years ago. It was an idea a fellow bikemessenger had. But I never actually heard what happened with the thief.

Have any of you heard of a similar thing? Do you know what happened to the bike thief? Do you think the owner ever could get charged for causing injury or even the death of the thief?