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@Erudin
It's very hard to prove bike theft as the thieves usually claim to have bought or found the bike. You also need proof of ownership to reclaim a bike, keep receipts, take pictures of your bike, record all the individual parts and serial numbers, register it on immobilise.com and print out the certificate, report bike stolen as soon after it happens as you can. I would not try and arrest a thief, either threaten to call police unless you can take bike, or lock/take your bike (it's not worth dying over a bicycle so walk away if violence is likely).
From http://inspectorgadget.wordpress.com/2007/03/03/waterloo-sunset/
"So when the 39-year-old spotted a man chasing a teenager who had stolen his bicycle, she instinctively waded in and carried out a citizen’s arrest. But moments later when police arrived on the scene she was arrested by an officer on suspicion of assault."
http://www.towerhamletswheelers.org.uk/campaigns/stolenbikes_bricklane.html
"One of the reasons that the police have a problem proving that a given bike is stolen is that the generally speaking the quality of theft reports given by owners when their bike is stolen is very poor. Typical examples are to describe the stolen bike as 'Men's mountain bike, blue'. This is just not that useful when you want to PROVE that a bike is stolen!"