Help for tracking villains

hey guys, I'm planning on running a lighthearted rules-lite campaign about taking down villains and criminals in a city. One thing that's consistently stumped me, however, is how I can make it interesting to track these villains.

For instance, I'm starting the game with a villain appearing at the bar the players get their bounties from and escaping with their wallets. His power is swapping the positions of 2 objects. I'm not sure how players would track him down and make the game interesting besides "follow a trail to his base" or something.

how do you guys make tracking criminals interesting?