The latest update: the police went to the residence of the owner of the truck. No one was home, or else they refused to answer the door, but the police spotted the quarter-pipe skateboard ramp on the property and confiscated it. It has been returned to my neighbor. The truck owner now has a warrant for his arrest.
It's a shame the police didn't search his premises (I bet they would have found some more stolen items), but I can only assume they couldn't justify a search warrant. So it's not an entirely satisfactory conclusion, but at least my neighbor has his property back.
Here's a final update that can be placed under the "you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink" category.
Two nights ago, my neighbor's quarter-pipe skateboard ramp was stolen again. It was chained to a tree in his back yard, but it took the thieves about ten seconds with a bolt cutter to deal with that. And guess what? My neighbor had never bothered to install any cameras after the last burglary, even after my (and another neighbor's) cameras helped him recover it the last time. For all anyone knows, it was stolen by the same thief, or by someone the thief knew. Whoever did it exited the alleyway on the west end, where no one has any camera coverage. Someone did record an image of a truck going down the alley from the east, but it is impossible to determine if that vehicle had anything to do with the burglary.
So now my neighbor is furious (yet again), and I am completely unsympathetic. He could easily have afforded a top-of-the-line camera system installed by a local security company. For that matter, he could easily have afforded a couple of Wyze cams pointed at his front and back yards. But he did nothing, and now the ramp is gone for good.
Maybe now he'll install some cameras. Maybe.
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