My brother met someone riding his MTB that was stolen a few weeks ago the day before yesterday, inspected the bike, called the police and gave chase when the other guy took off on the bike. He stayed on the phone with the dispatcher for the whole chase and led the police to a store where the guy had locked the bike up. The police went in and fetched the person, noticed he was also wanted for something else and handed the bike to my brother and took the thief/reciever of stolen goods in custody. I'm still waiting for his write-up in english to be posted to his blog, can link to it when it is.

Goes to show, sometimes a little civillian courage pays off.