I supposed getting your throat slashed is always a possibility in situations like this. But, then again, this is probably a comforting story for the criminals when you consider that the police officer was given "the names, phone numbers, and locations of the suspects", and yet decided to go away on vacation for a week before going to arrest them.

If the criminals had murdered the neighbor, the police might be more inclined to go after them right away, and the criminals would have been worse off.

Of course, it would take logical criminals to realize that murder would get them into more trouble than (unarmed) robbery.