thing is chip it all depends on who your target is and knowing the enemy. with your second example your damn right, sadly doing the right thing is likely to cause aggro. But for many, doing nothing is not morally right even if it saves you aggro so will be the "hero" anyway. but thats down to the person you are i guess.

kid gangs like you mention are the worst as its pack mentality and they know they can get away with it so they do. I'm sure if said individual hunted down the gang one by one and beat living shit out of them, the problems would stop, but we both know the odds of successfully doing that are slim as the police would be heavily on the side of actively protecting those "innocent" teens from being violently assaulted while all youd get is a crime reference number and the direct line number for the antisocial behaviour rep/team in your local area

but it can be done. just depends if your prepared to loose everything to uphold your moral beliefs. most people are not and will draw a line when it effects family.

with a lone thief like this scum cunt wheel thief and only a couple of looser "socially inept" mates then its well worth the risk by dealing out some vigilante justice. the odds are far better. if the guy is a career thief then even better as he WILL move on pretty quick just to avoid hassle. while he has hassle, hes not earning money. its that simple for a lot of career criminals and with petty theft he's highly unlikely to be connected to any serious criminal enterprise where revenge might be high on the agenda (eg fucking with drug dealers being more risky due to connections etc). A bit of intelligent research and info gathering and get on with it is the way forward. Sadly hes kind of fucked himself up by admitting criminal damage major fail!!