Car theft is more likely to be acted on than any other kind of theft, in my experience, but it still has to be convenient for them.

One time my car was stolen, I knew it had only just happened so they were certainly still driving it near my home, and the police just said sorry, we’ll let you know if it turns up somewhere. I called back a few minutes later when I remembered that it’s on a car share program so I can track the location via GPS - that got them interested, and I stayed on the phone giving updates while it took them only 20 minutes to make an arrest.

The same car got stolen a couple of years later, when I wasn’t able to track it live. I located it myself, and they just turned up to do a few minutes of forensics then left.

They’re definitely understaffed. When I went to the station to do a report there was only one constable in the building, even though it was a time of day/week when they’re extra busy.