In all seriousness in hindsight going straight to the police probably would have been better. The deal now is that he knows you'll be the reason he got caught, and thieves tend to look at wanting revenge for that kind of thing (and disregarding that they brought it on themselves). If you went straight to the police he wouldn't have known if a neighbor saw him do it, if a friend turned him in, etc. Since he knows your car and likely then where you live, or close, that puts you at a disadvantage too for random car vandalism later.
I've been down this road quite a bit since car break-ins in our neighborhood have been bad for a few years. Because of that I never leave anything of value in it. But one night last year my car was broken into anyway and literally all they stole, and all they could find, was a car air freshener and a $2 audio cable. I thought of that when you mentioned them stealing jolly ranchers and a spare tire. It's like...what do they think they are going to get for that? My stuff wasn't even $5 total new, and they'd be lucky to sell it for $1. You can't help but think if someone's life has reached the point that they are breaking into cars to steal jolly ranchers and air fresheners....that's just about official rock bottom lol. There's a part of me that almost feels bad for them if that's how bad things suck.