> Much safer to just gather information and give it to the police.
The police won't help you recover your stolen property: it's not their job.
> Confronting a thief in person is pretty dangerous...there's a non-zero chance of a fight, possibly involving a knife or gun.
Every day walking around a city involves a non-zero chance of a fight. Every day interacting with other humans in civilization can involve a knife or a gun. Meeting someone who opportunistically boosted your DSLR at a house party isn't significantly more dangerous than meeting any Craigslist seller in any public place. In fact, it's probably less dangerous, because you won't be walking up to someone you don't know with hundreds of cash dollars in your pocket.
It's not even a complicated meeting. You take a friend, for safety, as many craigslist buyers do. You ask to see the camera, as any craigslist buyer would. You ask to take a few sample pictures to make sure it works, as any Craigslist buyer would. You snap a picture of the perpetrator and tell him (politely, because you don't want to fight) that this is your camera and you're going to keep it; if he disagrees, he's welcome to accompany you to the police station to sort things out. The vast majority of opportunistic thieves at this point will completely bug out since they know they're busted and they don't want to go to jail (there are few DSLR/lens combinations that don't qualify as felony larceny in most states).
I find your vision of a world in which opportunistic thieves pack heat and victims "just gather information and give it to the police" unrealistic, not to mention depressing.
The police won't help you recover your stolen property: it's not their job.
That very much depends on the department, the particular officer, and how you present your case.
I had a cop in the very high-crime town I was living in take my statement about having seen my stolen bike ridden by someone and then go looking for that person and find him.
Like you said, he didn't have to do that, but he was probably not busy and I had previously reported it stolen. Didn't hurt that he was coincidentally the same one who had come to my apt when I reported the bike (and other stuff) stolen.
What I'm getting at is that you shouldn't assume the police won't help. You have nothing to lose by asking them.
So is driving on the highway. What, exactly, is your point?
We take calculated risks every single day. Meeting an opportunistic thief in a public place to retrieve your own property is at the low of end the risk spectrum, and the savings is a lot more than a slightly faster commute to work.
A thief is MUCH more likely than a random person to be 1) impulsive 2) stupid 3) violent.
It's a calculated risk. I also don't drive on New Years Day at 3am due to the drunks (or, really, late at night on Sunday morning in some areas). I prioritize my personal safety highest, followed by protection from liability, followed by my property. I've seen confrontations over similar things turn into stabbings or shootings. In Oakland, we had a fun game of "armed restaurant takeover" last year, where kids would enter a restaurant or coffeeshop, grab all the laptops/phones, and in a few cases, shoot people.
The police in most non-dysfunctional places are fairly willing to make arrests if you hand them a totally packaged case for grand theft. What they hate is work which screws up their stats (reported crimes which they can't/won't solve).
The police won't help you recover your stolen property: it's not their job.
> Confronting a thief in person is pretty dangerous...there's a non-zero chance of a fight, possibly involving a knife or gun.
Every day walking around a city involves a non-zero chance of a fight. Every day interacting with other humans in civilization can involve a knife or a gun. Meeting someone who opportunistically boosted your DSLR at a house party isn't significantly more dangerous than meeting any Craigslist seller in any public place. In fact, it's probably less dangerous, because you won't be walking up to someone you don't know with hundreds of cash dollars in your pocket.
It's not even a complicated meeting. You take a friend, for safety, as many craigslist buyers do. You ask to see the camera, as any craigslist buyer would. You ask to take a few sample pictures to make sure it works, as any Craigslist buyer would. You snap a picture of the perpetrator and tell him (politely, because you don't want to fight) that this is your camera and you're going to keep it; if he disagrees, he's welcome to accompany you to the police station to sort things out. The vast majority of opportunistic thieves at this point will completely bug out since they know they're busted and they don't want to go to jail (there are few DSLR/lens combinations that don't qualify as felony larceny in most states).
I find your vision of a world in which opportunistic thieves pack heat and victims "just gather information and give it to the police" unrealistic, not to mention depressing.