Are you going to have nice components on this "faux beater", or are you going to artificially age ('beat the snot out of") the rest of the components along with the frame to complete the ruse?
Having worked in L.E. for 28 years, I can tell you that thieves are gonna thief no matter what...I'm convinced that if you left a dried dog turd on the sidewalk for any length of time, someone would steal it.
As mentioned above...ride it, enjoy it, and just make it harder to steal than the one next to it.