RJT, I know what you mean about going to court. Im not near any big city so the police normally know all the trouble makers so a picture would work. But like you said you probably would never see any money. I know a guy who had a duplex that we wired up. Someone went in and stole all the wire for scrap. The cops got the guy and he went to jail for 30 days and he owes the home owner $10,000. He doesn't have the money so the courthouse is going to take the money out of his paycheck. But since he has no job and probably never will because hes a thief the home owner will probably never get his money.
Seems like a motion camera would work good, if you got a alot of pictures of some guy around your machine with tools then you got him. Seems like a dvr may record over it if you didnt find out right away.