Criminals (in this case bike thieves) just change their tactics:
"He used a limited tool set—generally just wirecutters, a wrench, and a screwdriver—and didn’t like bolt cutters. “You caught with bolt cutters, they charge you with burglary,” he claimed."
"Cops found shattered pieces from my U-lock and told me the thief used liquid nitrogen."
"The thief used a portable plasma cutter in broad daylight."
And a comment that's hard to disagree with:
"We used to hang horse theives no reason not to hang bike theives."
Really? You find it hard to disagree with killing a man who steals a bike?... metal and rubber?
Sometimes it is the last gift your father ever gave to you.
(No, I'm not injecting any personal bias here at all.)
That said, I believe as a society we should be cracking down much harder on bike thieves.