I also have a now-fond story of damaging a cherished item. My grandparents had a wood foot rest shaped like a hippo. The hippo had decorative knobs for eyes. There wasn't a lot to do inside at their house, so in the evenings, from the time I could make my way to this foot stool, I would play with the eyes. Grampa would take them away and hide them from me, and I'd spend the rest of our trip looking for them. Eventually, I stripped out the wood, so the eyes would fall out easily, but the "game" continued and he'd get so frustrated with me for not leaving them alone. When they were deciding who would get what when they were getting up in age (died in their 90s), they made sure I would get the hippo. It's in my living room now.
When I got a dog, the first thing she went for were the eyes on the hippo, so I had to be the one to take them away.
It's a good memory now, but man, I'm sure I made my very patient grampa very mad when it first happened!