You can sue anyone for anything, as far as civil court (or nearly so), depending on the state, the losing party may have to pay the legal fees for the winning team. This is unlikely to go anywhere, the burden is on the person suing in this case, they need to show a preponderance of evidence. There's probably some kind of counter-suit the person who's van was stolen can levy as well, such as for damages to their vehicle and so on. That said, there could always be significant details that are missing here. That happens quite often with court cases, you have to read the briefs, usually the briefs from the judges are the best way to sift through it all. I would encourage anyone that wants to make an informed decision on any case to sign up for the us gov service that lets you read court docs, it's free to sign up and I downloaded several a year ago and unless you go above a certain amount, it stays free (even though it says they charge you). But yeah, on paper, this looks to be a slam dunk for the person who's van was stolen.
