Something similar happened to me last year, except the thief was in a motorbike. It made me decide to buy a second, cheaper phone for traveling abroad.
I did have some fun with the situation. I immediately put my iPhone in lost mode, with the message “enjoy your paperweight”, and blocked the eSIM to make sure it was as useless as possible. For the next few months, I checked on it periodically to see where the phone was last seen and how it moved around town.
Eventually the phone stopped reporting its location. I assume the thief just gave up and threw it away or stashed it.
