The work the police do has almost nothing to do with "having a general location of a crime." In a boring, trivial sense there is probably always a crime of some

The work the police do has almost nothing to do with "having a general location of a crime." In a boring, trivial sense there is probably always a crime of some sort being committed in every large apartment building. In general, unless the stolen item is unique or special in some way, going in "to get it" will almost always be the most expensive option. People could be hurt, the police could get the wrong person, the item could be damaged, etc. Also you would probably not get your phone back! It would be evidence of a crime and in custody for a long time. I have a lot of critiques of the police, but I really don't think we have put them in a good position to retrieve stolen property AND I think trying to retrieve stolen property is generally a really inefficient way to make victims of crime whole.