This ^
Say you did have your gun on you (false bottom of cooler, water-proof bag, etc...) what would you have then done? )
I'm thinking that shooting out their tires would have been my option had a gun been at hand and holding them until the authorities arrived. Doing this could however have the consequence of escalated into a shootout. You need to be prepared and have adequate cover.
Stuff is just not worth it (getting into a gun fight/killing someone over your stuff).
That's the reaction folks with sticky fingers count on, and why they continue to abstain from working for a living......perhaps I am a bit too brazen, but I'll be damned if someone is going to walk away with things I have worked hard for if I have a reasonable opportunity to stop it. <if the opportunity does not exist, as in his case, then I think he did the reasonable thing>