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@Oliver Schick
Mike, I was being perfectly serious, and as Snowy says, contact like that between perpetrator and victim isn't such an unusual idea at all.
Immature people do stupid things. It's part of learning. Who hasn't stolen something at some point and partly through that experience realised that stealing is wrong? There is absolutely no reason to condemn this so strongly.
Rest assured that I certainly don't condone bike theft or find it harmless--after all, I'm currently helping to run a major anti-bike theft campaign. But this instance just went completely beyond a mere bike theft. What started as a property crime ended up, according to the report we have, in a life-threatening situation. I'm sure that had you been a passer-by you would have been trying to help the crashed thief in any way you could, and would neither have harmed him nor wished harm on him like in these highly objectionable posts:
Unfortunately, it's not the case that you get what you deserve in life. That would be 'justice'. There is, however, a fairly widespread phenomenon called 'injustice' which rather puts a spanner into this attitude.
The reason why crime happens is essentially because the law, which is supposed to govern society according to just principles and order it well, does not in fact perform this function adequately. There are lots of supposedly lawful things that people do all the time that are basically just wrong. Criminals are just people who do wrong things not in accordance with the law, and often justify their actions by reference to the weak position of the law.
The reason why the legend of Robin Hood has exercised such fascination over the centuries, in all its many forms, is because there is a sense in which (some of, depending on the version of the legend, which of course most probably is not comprised of historical events) Robin Hood's actions are justifiable even though they are unlawful. It is one of the classic human stories because it shows up how these things are not always black-and-white.
We believe in punishment for wrong actions, but punishment does not always lead to betterment. It often leaves criminals completely unable to lead any life other than a criminal life again. As Snowy says, they become more likely to re-offend. Rich and powerful criminals are much less likely to be caught, let alone suffer a loss of reputation, than poor and vulnerable criminals. And so on.
It's most definitely not as cosy as 'you get what you deserve in this life'. I almost wish it was.
This is a very unusual case and I am simply refusing to treat it only as a bike theft, much as I wouldn't have applied the same vindictive attitude as you even to an actual bike theft. William showed sympathy to the thief as he judged that with this crash he had been more than punished and didn't want to press charges. I think that was a good decision.
I'm only hypothesising, of course, and I have no idea what WIlliam wants to do. I just thought, they seem to be of similar age. Why shouldn't they have a sensible chat sometime? You never know, they might have more in common than you might think. Chances are the thief won't turn out to be a monster. People can get to know each other that way. It's as simple as that. I would definitely go and visit him. It probably wouldn't be easy at first, but who knows? The worst that could happen would be that we could find out that we don't get on.