Stop Thief!

When we returned to the boat from our 4 day outing, something was missing from my car. Someone took the tow ball assembly off. Multiple scenarios ran through our minds.... someone needed a tow ball to pull their trailer back, someone liked my shiny ball, and the last thought that crossed our minds was that some kids took it off my SUV and put it on another truck to try and incite some sort of incident. This is the first negative experience we've had in our marina. Could I have done something to prevent the theft? Absolutely. I could have taken the ball assembly off and kept it in my car ... I could have put some sort of locking nut on it ... maybe I could have hot wired it to my battery so that if someone were to touch it they would get a jolt. But I didn't, and my tow ball is gone. Am I angry? No. But I do have to decide how I'm going to respond. I could let it go, I could go on a tow ball hunt in the marina, or I would strongly desire something bad happen to the person/people whom removed the tow ball. Can I live without the ball? Yes, so I'm going to simply let this incident go. Whomever stole it, if they are regulars at the marina, will see me drive in and think they got something over me ("Ha! I stole his silver ball!"). That's cool. Have a ball amigo! Like attracts like, so be careful thief. Oh, it is a whole different world if you touch something important to me ... so I suggest you move on.