No, they wouldn't.  The witness stated they took pictures only of the man and his vehicle's license plate.  No picture of him filling buckets with sand.  No picture of the buckets full of sand in his vehicle.  All the pictures actually verify is that the man was at that particular beach.  Now if they found buckets full of sand in his vehicle, that's actual evidence, especially if it can be proven through analysis that the sand is likely from that beach (not sand that can be publicly purchased from home improvement stores). Based on what you're implying, you could take a picture of any random person at the beach and their vehicle, say they stole sand, and that they could be arrested/fined for stealing sand without any other evidence.