Why are so many hackers caught?

Apologies for the noob question, but it's been on my mind.

Why are so many hackers caught?

I hear many stories of illegal activity being tracked back to an IP address, or even a MAC address.

The real question:
Why did the attacker not use a VPN, a VM, and/or someone else's computer to do the hack? Or connect to a random unsecured network using a drop box or a machine they can destroy after? I just don't understand why …

caught cybersecurity hackers