There have been some high-profile cases of people who targeted aircraft with laser pointers being identified and prosecuted. But in many cases, it was luck that played the largest role in tracking down the offenders. But the FAA recently announced it has developed a visualization tool for analyzing laser strikes dating back from 2010 and through 2020.
Before widely available lasers, we had a knucklehead at a carrier practice field shining a bank of spotlights at aircraft in the pattern…not sure what his hoped for outcome was, but it was a good thing for him the local police arrived shortly after the wives found him.