I miss being home so much. We know a lot of people. My son had problems with someone cutting the lock on his gate so while home we staked the place out and found out who it was. Called the sherrif and gave the tag number and they asked who we were. The desk sergeant was a guy I went to school with and told my son he’d take care of it real soon. The tag belonged to a 50 something who was a thug in high school and never grew up. We sat in the woods on the tailgate watching. Sure enough, in about 15 minutes a patrol car drove by and in about another 10 minutes it came back by with a passenger in the back seat. We then got a call on the cell saying a tow truck would be by soon to get the pickup of the passenger. That was a year ago and we have not had any trouble since. It helps to know and be known by people. It can also be fun and rewarding!
What you posted was good old fashioned police work.
We still have some of them around.