u/GeneAccomplished5325

Just this, really.

I live in a city in the UK. Every night, someone walks up my road trying all he car doors to see if any are unlocked and, when they find one, they get in, shut the door and go through the interior looking for anything valuable. I think this is happening sometime after midnight.

I have bought a small PIR motion sensor camera that I’m going to mount in my car that records video and sends an alert to my phone when the door is opened.

If the system works and I get an alert, should I rush outside, apprehend the thief, disable them and phone the police?

EDIT

Thank you everyone for the replies, much appreciated.

I think you are all correct and I should collect the video footage and hand it to the Police. Tackling them myself is SO very tempting but the risk of getting myself into trouble for ABH is not worth it for some scumbag robbing cars.

Of course, the other very tempting option is the one suggested by r/Alarmed-Syllabub8054, so I shall be rigging up an anvil from the lap post with a release mechanism that is triggered by the car door being opened. Pretty much like Tom+Jerry, really (must remember to tell my wife first).