Attractive Nuisance??

Today I took the car to a really nifty car-wash. You get out of your car, let them vacuum and clean it, all the while you hang out on a nice comfy bench in the sun. I thought this was really nice. This could be entirely normal in the whole of the US civilized world, but I've never done this. In Germany it is illegal to wash your car in front of your house. You have to go to an authorized car wash - just one of those ones that you stay in the car while your auto gets sprayed with stinky recycled water. In London I think that you could wash your own, but we also used one of those little ones where you drive your car in to the stall and then back it out when it's done.

But, the point is -- after I took the car to the car wash and enjoyed my moment in the sun, I went to pick up the boys from school. Henry gets in the car and immediately says, "What happened to my Ipod?" All that remained of his Ipod were the ear buds dangling obviously out of the little webbed pocket in front of his seat. Big DRAG! We headed back over to the car wash and reported our loss. They were really nice, and I guess they will work with their employees to find out what the heck happened to Henry's Ipod. There's a part of me that feels like I abetted the crime for not remembering that it was there in the first place. I left an attractive nuisance and expected someone to be able to manage their impulses. I was wrong.

The incident reminded me of a time about 25 years ago when Shannon was about 3. We got in to our car one morning to find that someone had broken in to our car. All that was left of our radio were the severed wires hanging out of the dashboard. She just sat in her car seat and stared at the hole. Finally she said, "Why would somebody want to steal our music??" in the way that only an innocent 3 year old could say. She didn't get that someone stole the hardware. To her, they just took her music. So sweet.