Do other AS kids do this?

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Agreed. And I imagine my imagination went right where yours did. That part is definitely awful.

Some people have told me I was awful before for throwing his collections away. They say it is important to him and that he is not hurting anyone by doing it, so I should leave him be. But I am certain they do not understand the magnitude of what would happen if I didn't.

OK, maybe I planted bad images into people's heads. Anyway, what my parents used was the usual "as long as you're living under my roof..." crap. Or a variation of it, "when you have your own place, you can fill it to the ceiling with garbage for all we care". All that, combined with a lot of yelling and threats to tear my favorite stuffed dog into pieces right in front of me while making me watch. Most people don't get their own place until they're 18, if not older. And for a 4-year-old child, that's exactly the same as never. So, my parents were essentially telling me: "you will never be allowed to what you want".

*****************25 years later*****************
I now have my own apartment, and it was just like my parents "predicted". There are empty food packages on the kitchen floor, old newspapers on chairs, old bills from as far as 2007 strewn under my computer desk, dirty dished filling the sink to the brim, and tattered computer manuals on the living room couch, and junk mail on the living room floor. I'm not a hoarder; I don't hold on to the stuff because I feel like "I might need it", or "can't throw it out"; I hold on to it because I just don't care.

Don't take my story as an attack. Take it as a cautionary tale.

My Son used to collect soft things like pieces of cotton, wool, material etc.
Now it is stones. I find them in his pockets, bedroom, Jacket, school bag etc..

I wonder what it is with rocks. I kid you not, my son has probably collected at least 1000 stones over the years. I mean, I collected some as a kid, but they were agates or other "pretty" ones. But these aren't even remarkable ones. Just...stones.

Aspie1, I am glad they were not doing what I thought they were doing, but the tactics you are describing on a 4 year old still ring of psychological abuse to me.

I am pondering the same thing. I was also a "rock hound" from age 3 to age 12. There wasn't a day I didn't get yelled at for having rocks in my pockets and causing the washer to be full of stones. I'm not entirely sure if it was the texture, fossil impressions/striations or the weight (or perhaps even all three) that intrigued me so much; I just knew I couldn't resist the allure of rocks...

No reason to be embarrassed! You seem to be in good company!