My contractor stole rebar out of my driveway, I saw him, took photos, called the police but they said it was a civil matter. Now I need to sue for breach of contract, because contractor was going to leave the required rebar out of the foundation.

If the rebar was part of an all-inclusive prepaid materials contract, wasn't that theft? Why are police so blasee about $600 of rebar?

And if the contractor outright stole my rebar and was going to leave it out, doesn't that trump any counterclaims he might have for secondary issues?

I'm NOT a lawyer. What I would do in that situation is file a complaint and press charges at my local police station. If there's nothing in the contract about them taking any left over materials from the site, and you PERSONALLY saw them take things, then why not? At least you could get a police report number from that complaint to put into your criminal complaint of theft / larceny you might wanna file later.

Honestly, it just sounds like when you called the police, they didn't feel like bothering with your situation. It's always best to go into the precinct personally when you are able. Just my opinions though, I don't really know crap.