It's precisely the attitude of "It's not worth defending your VCR by killing the thief" which encourages the thieving ba$tards to break in and start stealing in thr first place. Because they know that there's bug ger all chance of Plod catching them as he's too busy filling out meaningless huggy-fluffy paperwork (instead of assisting Chummy down the steps to the jail) and even if he did, some weak willed magistrate would probably only give them a few minutes of yoof-custody or 'shirk in the community'.
But if they thought "Stick my head through that window and I might get to meet Mr Smith and Mr Wesson on rather a personal (and terminal) level", then perhaps they'd think twice?