Stolen musical equipment . Then and now.

In 1968 I was performing in Sunderland, a town on the northeast coast of England. After the show we went back to our "Pro Digs". I grabbed my Gretsch guitar and we went inside for a cup of tea. Thirty minutes later I went back to the van and it was gone, stolen. Everything was gone, including our coats and musical equipment. We survived, but I was struck by the fact that someone would be willing to steal the tools of our trade, our only way to make a living. That was a long time ago and I was over it until I learned this morning that the same thing had happened to a good friend of mine in Colorado Springs. What kind of person would do a thing like that? How would they react if the same thing happened to them? Age old questions I'm sure, but they seem just as relevant today as they were back then.