When I was a little kid, the police in my suburb would frequently steal kid’s bikes to teach them a lesson. The parents would freak out, and have them call the police. The police would let them look at the recovered bikes, and then have them register the bike with the city.

Apparently, Metro wants to do the same thing with iPods. According to The Examiner

Metro police will be distributing decals to customers that will give iPods, cell phones and other technical devices a unique identification number. If the owner registers their number, the information will be entered into a national database and could help identify a device if it is lost or stolen.

This sort of makes sense, but it really is an exercise in futility. The article reports that ”

Thirty iPods have been reported stolen from Metro customers this year, compared with 34 for all of last year and just two in 2005.

”

Thirty? Wow. Who cares? If you don’t want something stolen, don’t bring it on the metro. Plain and simple. Sure, my earbuds cost almost nearly as much as my iPod, but that’s why you should use the shuffle. They’re $79, and each song is a surprise. If you bring a 60Gig iPod Video with you every day, you deserve to get it stolen. We’re all big kids in D.C., we don’t need Metro to be our parents.