I never can understand what people think they are going to do with them. It's very hard to resell them because they are so recognizable.
It depends on the class of criminal.
When we lived in the city, our car window was smashed for the $3 in toll change in the ash tray. Cop told us that's $3 they didn't have before and all it cost them was a rock they picked up off the ground.
The trees may be very valuable, but criminals may sell them for $5 on a street corner to the average Joe who knows shit about bonsai and would never recognize them. The criminals still come out ahead by their measure.
Criminals are more rational than we think...but motivated by a different set of goals