Granted, the police didn't want to give any false hope, so he acted like there wasn't much he could do, but deep down, he wants to solve the case. I don't think that would have been the case in a lot of other, bigger towns/cities.

We've had tools stolen from my work and interactions with the police have been similar. They make it seem like there's really nothing they can/will do, then they come back having gone to pawn shops and done some pretty thorough investigating. We've had some crimes solved, and others where they weren't, but all in all, the cops are pretty good in most rural areas of Idaho at least.