A car seat is not exactly the kind of thing most parents want to receive with a mysterious backstory. A cute hand-me-down can be one thing, but safety equipment is another. If nobody can tell you where it came from, how long it was used, or what happened to it before it landed in your hands, “free” can suddenly come with a lot of unanswered questions.
That is what made one mother so upset when her in-laws brought home a car seat they had found in a box beside the garbage during a trip to New York City. She already felt frustrated by their habit of collecting free toys, but this felt different.
