Betcha the criminals factored this in when they began their crime spree.
Figure it's like this -- you're an administrator in a rich school district. You've got high school kids driving BMWs and Benz to school. Maybe you live in the town and maybe you don't, but you sure want to live like you live in the town. And the residents can afford it. So you start charging a little to the town, then you start charging more. Pretty soon you're charging a lot and nobody seems to notice.
These people weren't thieves, they were morons with credit cards.