You and your friend have my sympathies. This has been going on for decades. I had my small pickup truck stolen out of a San Diego public parking lot in broad daylight back in 1989. A detective working for my auto insurance company (Allstate) found it in the possession of the Tijuana police department a couple of weeks later. At which point all they could do was offer me a check.
I was working for a company located in the ghetto of detroit.. when the sun glistened off the razor wire in the parking lot it was just beautiful...
anyway, we were going to install a safety device at the front end of a final line flattop conveyor for an auto company. This thing took up an entire semi trailer. It was thursday on easter weekend. Semi was loaded, warming up in the parking lot, driver came in to get a cup of coffee for the road, came out and the truck was gone.
Never did find it....