Caught 4 people breaking into my parking garage just now. Did not draw.

This just happened, so please excuse any typos or lack of clarity. It's 2:30AM. I live in busy area in a major city in Southern California. My building is a complex of condos with a large parking garage on the bottom floor. The gate to the garage is located just beneath and to the side of my back porch and bedroom window. It is mostly obscured from my point of view, but I can see near it.I'm getting ready for bed, and I hear a repetitive clicking noise, like something being pulled apart. Pregnant wife and young daughter are asleep inside, so obviously I'm going to check this out.I look out the window and see a shady white male in his 40's, standing in the alley and looking around while the noise continues. There is obviously more than one person involved. Something's not right. My instinct is to go down the back alley and check it out. I have my firearm with me, so I pause to consider the situation. I think better of it, and decide that leaving my home to confront the people is a bad idea.Instead, I go out onto the porch and take out my flashlight shine in down into the alley and say, "Hey. What are you doing?"40 Shady replies in a very relaxed manner, "Oh, hey. My buddy crashed his skateboard into your gate and hit his head."Keeping an eye on 40 Shady, I lean out and see a 20-year old typical California junky with a longboard and a grocery bag putting something in his backpack. Now something's definitely not right. Were they getting high or breaking in? Behind 20 Junky, there are two other people on bicycles."He skated into the gate? That makes no fucking sense. What are you doing?"40 Shady says, "We're just...we're going.""Then get the fuck out of here. Don't skate in this alley anymore."The two others on bikes go south in the alley, and 40 Shady and 20 Junky start walking north. I have them lit up with my light. Now it's becoming clear what was going on. For a moment, I considered going down to the alley to confront them...maybe see if I could keep them there while I call and wait for police to arrive.Again, I think better of it. I wait until they are gone, then go down to the alley, still armed, to check the gate out. (I can't see it from the porch because of an overhang.) There is a hole pried through the metal mesh gate. Damnit.I go back inside, dial 911, give my account. Police are dispatched, and while on the phone, I inform the dispatcher that I am a CCW and I have my weapon on me. I ask her what she would like me to do. She asks me to secure the weapon while police are en route and I agree.The police arrive, and they are friendly. I inform them that I am not armed, and they seem very relaxed, not even requesting to see my waistband. Same cops that came when I called on someone breaking into the building behind us. They won't even take a report, though, because I'm a renter. The HOA has to call tomorrow.I'm frustrated. Not at the policy or lack of report, or the very cool cops. I'm frustrated that doing the right thing, the thing I had to do to protect myself legally, resulted in these scumbags trying to break into our cars getting away.If I had to do it over again, based only on the information I had, I would probably do the same thing. It would be unwise to put myself into a confrontation with 4 cracked out thieves (I hate thieves) and put myself at risk over material possessions. They weren't breaking to my domicile. There was no imminent threat. I would not have been within my rights to draw unless they threatened me. So I chose not to go provoke a threat, and I will be sleeping in my bed tonight instead of a cell.Thanks for being an awesome community I can talk to about this. Any feedback or perspective would be much appreciated.Edit: spelling via /r/CCW https://ift.tt/2V1UP59