Experiences like yours are clearly unfortunate. Rare, but they do happen. Thanks for reminding us that we need to be careful, even in a case like yours where you left your bike after sunset and it was already gone before sunrise.
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My community used to license bicycles, I licensed all of mine to get the sticker on the bike that the police could use to find the owner if found later.
My community stopped licensing bikes, they instead recommended using Bike Index or a similar service. I listed all my bikes on Bike Index. I also bought the Bike Index stickers and put on my bikes. I bought the generic stickers (no QR code), but it appears such stickers are no longer available on their website.
https://bikeindex.org
These stickers and registrations are no guarantee, but they can help. Several decades ago my dad's bike was stolen, months later the police called and said come and pick up your bike. It was in terrible shape, but a local bike shop straightened the bent frame and fork, I got it working again with some use parts.
Someone on this forum (I do not recall whom) had his custom Co-Motion bike with Rohloff stolen out of his garage. Many months later, a bike shop called him, someone brought a bike in for repair and it sounded like it might be the one he informed local bike shops about. It was his. All serial numbers were ground off, but it was his.