I had about ninety to one hundred different Ninja Turtles action figures. My thing was that I didn't want to buy the alternate Turtle versions, i.e. Detective Donatello or any of that crap. I wanted my adventures to be as plausible as possible., tracking down all the Leatherheads and Baxter Stockmans and Mutagen Men I could find. I soon buried all these toys, and when I went to college, the toys had a second life for any children who would visit my parents. Being that I was the last child in the family, any kid who visited my parents would be stuck with a barren "adult" house, so the toys came in handy, in theory.
One time I was visiting, however, and arriving around two PM, I noticed that the child of one of my folks' parents, a five or six year old, had been playing in my old room with my figures. I entered my room to find pieces of toys STREWN ALL OVER THE FLOOR. It was like my toys were being used to re-enact Saving Private Ryan. Arms, legs, heads all over the place. I had literally watched my childhood torn to pieces. Naturally, the child moved on, leaving the toys for someone else to clean up. Because clearly, no one had taught this child about responsibilities.
I come downstairs and he's enraptured by my Jurassic Park DVD boxed set, the very first DVD's I had ever purchased. He's watching and loving the first film, and so I don't immediately want to kill him. But I notice he's clasping the DVD box waaaay too strongly. His mother mentions that he has the films at home and he watches them all the time.
Near the end of the day, they're getting ready to leave. My room remains a Ninja Turtle graveyard, and he's putting on his jacket, still holding my DVD's. He actually turns to his mother and asks, "Can I keep them?" Before I decide to unleash my optic blasts, I am curious as to what mother will say. Does she say no? Does she say yes? No. She gives the worst possible answer. "You'll have to ask Gabe." Lady, don't make me tell your kid no.
He turns to me and asks, "Can I ke-" I don't let him finish, snapping them out of his hands, and angrily barking, "Are you kidding? Get a job." Fortunately, they thought I was kidding.
I haven't been able to look at my Ninja Turtles figures since then.
