Police is not interested in petty crime.
(A thief in this story was likely connected to a vast "organized crime" network, but try to prove this to the police when you are filling the report and they see just another stolen iPhone).
The phone will be sold for pennies on the dollar to an immigrant owned repair store that doesn’t ask any questions and then will go to a local sketchy wholesaler and then will go to one of about 15 or so companies in Dubai, Hong Kong or Shenzhen (for example https://www.hanggroup.com/price/https://www.lcdone.com/https://www.actionlogistics.com/). A coordinated effort to shut down these companies could probably make phone thefts decline dramatically for at least a couple of months.
Police is not interested in petty crime. (A thief in this story was likely connected to a vast "organized crime" network, but try to prove this to the police when you are filling the report and they see just another stolen iPhone).