Short story: A dude who was connected with the guy our band rented a warehouse space from stole our big Peavey mixing board. We lost a lot of other stuff too, including our drummer's cymbals (they left his crappy shells though). But the mixer- that was the star of our little show, for gear.
We went to a gig of theirs and lo and behold, our mixer was FOH, being attended by the guy who stole it (talk about dumb). We all five of us walked up during a set and stood around him, standing very close. We all shared the same air. It was uncomfortable. He kept it together, but the jig was up. We waited there, until the end of the set... you could almost see sweat breaking out on his forehead.
We left at the end of the set with the board. The point had been driven home, in front of all present, and he had been marked as a thief. We got the board back, he was through as a local scene participant (by and large, for a while anyway), and we ended up looking clean as a whistle and strong as a big oak. No violence to tarnish us.
Now, I can dig where you're coming from, Gargoil, and good on you for nailing it. But if you move your game up a notch you'll eventually see a benefit from it. To be able to walk away with clean hands is better than to get down into the same mud-puddle as the scum-bag trying to steal from you. Why elevate him? He doesn't deserve that much attention or credit! Keep the standard high and someone will notice.
