If you want to make an insurance claim don't insurance companies require a police report? I would assume this is the case regardless where you live.

Few people are going to make an insurance claim for a few thousand dollars, especially with what the premiums would be in areas with high crime. It is not a big enough loss to have to deal with filing a claim and then being subject to even higher premiums. You either replace it with your savings, or you learn to live without.

So file a report online.

https://www.sanfranciscopolice.org/get-service/police-report...

https://www.oaklandca.gov/services/report-a-crime-online

https://www.sjpd.org/reporting-crime/report-crimes-online

And have nothing come of that? Been there, done that. They do not give a shit.

Ok, imagine for me the society for which you can file a police report for a stolen backpack, and you relatively efficiently have your backpack returned, and the perpetrator brought to justice. What does that society look like? How does that happen?

This is my experience even in some of the poorer parts of Europe. You describe stolen items or provide photos of them and the police usually have a rough idea of who might have stolen it or have recently arrested someone in possession of your items.

Unbelievably, I had a stolen bike returned to me two years later by the sheriff, so it is possible if the item is registered and reported as stolen. No perp justice, but getting the bike back was a pleasant surprise.

That you won't get it back doesn't mean that it's not useful to count the crime. It won't get counted if not reported.

I agree. I just think expecting to get back a stolen backpack, at any measurable rate is pretty unrealistic, unless the society in question is so draconian that the solution is worse than the problem.