20 November 2025 Exactly one week ago, on 13 November, I discovered that my car had been stolen in Berlin. Even writing that sentence still feels strange. My Peugeot 5008 was there, and then it simply wasn't. Someone had taken it. I have owned cars for decades. I have lived in different countries, travelled extensively, experienced places with very different standards of living, very different levels of wealth and very different reputations for safety. And yet this had never happened to me before. Until Germany. It Was More Than a Car Of course, a car is an object. Cars can be repaired. They can be replaced. There is insurance. There are police reports, forms, claims, documents and procedures. I understand all of that rationally. But what has surprised me during this past week is how little the rational explanation helps with the feeling that remains afterward. When somebody steals something from you, the financial value is only part of what has been taken. There is also the violat...