When I was in high school many, many decades ago, the story got out that our football coach, his wife, and a couple friends had gone out to the Big City for dinner and a movie. Returning to the car after the movie, they spotted some low life fishing around the car door with a coat hanger trying to break in. Coach, being fleet of foot, ran up behind the guy and kicked him in the fanny hard enough to boost him up across the roof of the car, whence he fell back to the ground in a fair amount of pain with a broken tail bone. (I've known a couple people who have accidentally broken their tail bone; I hear it is one of the most painful minor injuries one can sustain.)
After the police dragged the perp off to the hospital, coach confided in the rest of his party that all had gone according to the plan hatched in that moment when the thief had been spotted.
Gosh, OP, wouldn't it have been nice to catch the creep in the act, with, say, a baseball bat at hand? Be sure to scream "stop resisting" repeatedly while you break both arms and legs multiple places.
Hopefully those two stories/fantasies help you feel better, getting the justifiable anger out.