Mom puts a tracking device in her 8-year-old son's stuffed animal, tracks it back to the home of one of his classmates: 'Should I have my son confront the kid directly and ask if he's been stealing his stuff?'

Did she go too far? 

It's hard to stand idly by and watch someone get away with antisocial behavior. It's not always easy to catch a thief or any other kind of petty criminal in the act. If your wallet is stolen, all you can do is cancel your credit cards and hope they don't figure out your debit card PIN. Most police departments aren't too concerned with catching the guy who stole your bike, because that's a lot of hard work. They'd have to check security footage, track down the guy, and find the lost bicycle, and in the grand scheme of crimes, that's usually not their priority. All cyclists can do is put more than one lock on their bikes and hope it doesn't get snatched up.

If you can anticipate theft, you might be better able to catch said thief. If packages keep getting stolen from your building, you might be able to catch the thief by hiding in the bushes and scaring them away. That's probably a more effective way to catch them than using a security camera. If your roommate or coworker keeps eating your lunch, you could make a meal with the spiciest pepper on the market, so that when they steal it, their mouth will be burned and they'll never want to steal it again. One way to prevent an item from being permanently lost is to put a tracking device in it. If you do the police work, the police will be better able to recover your possession.