THE call came in at 12:55 p.m.: My stroller had been stolen.

Yes, it was left outside, on a not-so-quiet street in Brooklyn. No, it was not locked up. Yes, I am fully aware of the fraught nature of complaining about the loss of a $400 stroller, one that epitomized privilege, and all that is loathsome about urban bourgeois parenting to begin with.

Still, when a friend responded to the news with an affectless “Well, did you leave it outside?” it seemed beside the point. It’s not as though I had left a tennis bracelet languishing on the stoop.

I called the New York Police Department’s public information office and asked a spokesman whether there was any numerical or anecdotal information indicating that this might be part of a trend.

“You said you’re with The New York Times?” he asked, skeptically. “What’s your e-mail address?”

He suggested that I put my “very unusual request” in an e-mail, but warned, “Your answer will probably be ‘we can’t accommodate you.’ ” Strollers that cost under $1,000 would be lumped in with other petty larcenies, he said, while those over $1,000 would be treated as grand larceny.