Dont know if this has ever happened to anyone else but I'm wondering what the hell?

Couple of months ago... my car was broken into for the 2nd time in 2 months. Bought a Sony head unit with a detachable face plate.

Always made a point to take the face plate into my apts... well... came out one evening and the window was shattered and head unit was ripped out.

So tell me whats up... even without the face plate, the head unit was still taken???

My thing is... can they still match up the face plate by model number on the head unit and... has this ever happened to anyone else?!?!