We have exactly the same issues in Britain in respect of 'low level' crime. In lots of rural areas, farmers suffer people coming on to their property and stealing heating oil or quads or tools - anything they can find. Police say they can't do much because they're short staffed.
When I said, '
you can take reasonable precautions like locking the door, putting valuables away. But if it happens, it happens' that is
not trivialising the impact of thievery.
I agree with
@atom4488 'Take reasonable measures commensurate with the value of what you are trying to protect and rely on insurance.'
A word on
@Downeaster's suggestion.
Back in 1999, a farmer living in rural East Anglia got fed up with youths coming on his farm to steal and one night he shot two of them in his house - one dead, the other seriously injured. Conflicting evidence on whether he
took the youths into his house to try, find guilty and punish them as extra-judicial 'justice'. He was tried for murder and intent to murder, found guilty by a jury and sent to prison. However after lots of legal appeals, he ended up being released after only serving about three years.
The case sparked a lot of debate about how people can defend their own property when the Police appear unable to and there was a lot of sympathy for the farmer. But given the opportunity to think about the question, most people in Britain remain firmly against vigilantes and shooting intruders.