Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Your Turn

Have you ever shoplifted before? I remember one time when I was 3 or 4 stealing a pack of Freedent. You know, because I had dentures. My mom made me give it back. Any shoplifting tales in your past?

51 comments:

Beth said...

An Ewok toothbrush from F&M

Same deal, my dad made me take it back.

AKM said...

Never in my life. Not even penny candy as a kid, as most people have.

Nichole Fisher said...

Once, by accident. I had been in one of those big box stores and my first stop was the card aisle. I put the card on the seat of the cart and as I was continuing with my grocery shopping I put my purse on the seat as well. Didn't see the cards, forgot they were there until I got out to my car. Now I always check.

Cat Slave said...

I was in 7th grade and my mom sent me to buy some business supplies at the local drugstore. Envelopes, probably. Small town...population less than 5,000 at the time (early/mid 80's). So, my little friend and I took off down the street to run this errand for my mom. While I'm picking out envelopes and paying for them at the register, my little friend is walking up and down the aisles.

We leave the store, go around the corner and she yells,"RUN!" So, we take off running and get around the corner to a school and plop down on a bench. She proceeds to whip out dozens of items that she stole while I'm buying a box of envelopes. Metal bangle bracelets, lipsticks, nail polish, little doodads and even a can of hairspray that she stuck up her coat sleeve. I just about DIED. I was so shocked that she had stolen all this crap in 5 minutes. We added up all the items, and her total was over $100. I begged her to never do that with me ever again. My mom went to high school with the lady that owned the drugstore (small town) and we would have been in some major trouble. Oh, and my little friend's parents were the local pastor and church lady!

Green Wave Gal said...

When I was about 3 or 4, I had a mini-Rubik's cube keychain in my hand when my mom and I walked out of the store. She made me give it back. I didn't understand what stealing was yet!!!

Katie said...

Yes. Peer pressure, and I am ashamed of it to this day.

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seaward said...

I used to shoplift ALL THE TIME. Over a decade ago, my little town got a Walmart, and I went way overboard. I took one of almost everything from the makeup aisles over the course of a month. The store never caught me, but my mom did. I stopped soon after that.

seaward said...

OH and once I tried (tried) to steal some bracelets from the dollar store, but the cashier saw me and started running down the aisle towards me. I hadn't put anything in my pockets/purse yet so she couldn't really do anything, but she definitely knew what I was up to.
I was a really shitty teenager.

Worstcompanytoworkfor said...

I'm too scary to steal or break the law, but I do like to speed and or run stop signs hahaha.

nolachickee said...

When we were in fourth or fifth grade, my friends and I got on a kick stealing breath mints. It didn't last long. I have no idea why.

Anonymous said...

Actually I just shoplifted a couple days ago. LOL. Due to health reasons, I use one of the electric carts to do my grocery shopping. The baskets aren't very large, so it's my habit to put the bag of cat litter on the floor of the cart between my feet. A couple times I've almost forgotten to put it up on the conveyor belt and I knew eventually I would forget. I noticed it when I got out to the car. Confessed my crime to the young lady who was putting my groceries in the car, and gave her $2 to pay for it. She probably just kept the $2, but my conscience is clear.

billybob said...

I must have only been about five or six when I ‘acquired’ a little ladybird brooch that was in a tray on my teacher’s desk. I pinned it on my cardigan and didn’t think anymore about it. Later on I put some workbooks on her desk and she said “that’s nice, I’ve got one like that”. With that she rummaged in her tray and said “Oh, I must have left it at home”. I didn’t say anything at the time but I never forgot what i did. So....Mrs Gilbertson, I am very sorry for stealing your brooch, I truly am.

hunter said...

I used to shoplift ALL THE TIME in highschool. Got caught once at 15 and again at 17, right before my 18th birthday.

Thank god I got caught again at 17 because I stopped after that. I'd never have the jobs that got me where I am today if I'd been caught over 18.

Magsey said...

When I was a kid I acted out all over the place.
I was caught with an Ohio Players 8-track up the sleeve of my coat.
My Dad, normally an eloquent ranter (as only a trial atty. can be) cried and told me he was disappointed.

35 years later and I can't let 3 cents go unpaid at the gas pump.
Dad was clever sometimes.

califblondy said...

Just once and I still feel crappy about it. I was a poor single Mom at the time so that's my excuse.

I don't think forgetting stuff in the cart is stealing. I figure it evens out with all of the small items that pass the scanner and get paid for yet somehow never make it home.

feraltart said...

I accidentally shoplifted once. Was on holidays pre-teens and got separated from my mum. Was called over the PA system to meet her at the front and I happened to have a bag of clothes pegs that they wanted. Had stuffed them in a plastic bag just so I could get to the front quicker. When I told my mum I thought she would go back and pay for them, but she and dad thought it was great. Bad parenting. I don't steal.

Anonymous said...

When I was a child--around 4 years old--I used to pick up stuff. I was with my granny once, someone was taking us to run errands while Mom was at work. I picked up a book from an office and a bottle of Bayer aspirin from the drugstore. Granny was upset and told Mom that she couldn't take me with her if I was going to be stealing, I would just have to stay home. Mom told not to do it again and I didn't.

I've managed to unknowingly steal cases of Coke from Wal-Mart a few times. I leave them in the cart and normally the cashier comes around with the hand-held scanner. But there have been a few times they haven't. I don't go back to pay. I always figured they would say I was trying to legitimately steal and don't want to deal with the hassle.

PammieC said...

I once stole a CD from a party I was at in college simply because it had "Total Eclipse of the Heart" on it. Not my proudest moment, but nearly 20 years later I still have that CD.

Anonymous said...

When I was 13 or 14, I shoplifted some Micronauts figures and got away with it. Then I came back a little while later and tried for some Star Wars figures and wound up getting pinched. Store security found a pretty big pocketknife on me :( My bike got impounded and I was taken to juvie...

Anonymous said...

@Magsey, that's hilarious.

And yes I did. It's what 14 year old girls did. Then I got caught stealing a tube of Maybelline lipstick. The cops were called but no charges or anything were pressed. It was a white trash mall and I didn't yell and scream or act white trash, which was probably a pleasant surprise for them. But I thought the world was over for me, I'd never get into university or get a good job, etc. But that was ok, I was going to be an actress.

God I was so stupid back then.

SusanB said...

When I was around 6 years old, back in the 1950s, the cashier at the grocery store my mom shopped at used to give me a piece of bubblegum. We went in their once, and the cashier wasn't around so I just took a piece and started chewing it. My mom asked me where I got it and I pointed to the bowl with the gum, she asked if anyone gave it to me and when I said no, she took my by the arm to the store manager and made me apologize to him. I was so mortified - I never shoplifted again. And don't ask what happened when my mom got me home.

A couple of times I've forgotten to take something out of the grocery cart and didn't catch it until I'm loading stuff into the car. I've always taken it back in and paid for it, terrified I'll be accused of stealing.

EmEyeKay said...

When I was six or so, I stole a box of tic-tacs. I felt so bad about it that I didn't open them, and told my mom the next day. She made me take them back and the cashier gave me a piece of candy for being honest. I was TERRIFIED when I told the man what I'd done. Never again!

MadLyb said...

I've never shoplifted, but my brother and sister have. They got caught right away, though. It's not a good idea to break the law when instant karma runs in the family.

AbderianLaughter said...

my mom is a teacher and one year when I was about 6 we were at the teacher's store (it was actually called that..) picking up some things for her classroom. I remember just going around stuffing things in my pockets and walking out the door when we left like it was nothing. When we got home my mom discovered everything and was appalled, she marched me back up there and I had to give everything back and tell the saleswoman that I stole them. Not to mention a spanking and grounding. I don't remember knowing it was wrong until that point in time, and never stole anything again.

DixieTheNoble82 said...

Got arrested at the mall Claires for shoplifting when I was 14. They took my polaroid & banned me from the property for a year then took me off to juvie in cuffs AND shackles. Scared the shit out of me & I think of it every time my klepto side comes out.

Seachica said...

I shoplifted CDs and cassettes several times in my senior year of high school, goaded into doing it by a friend. When I went away to college I shoplifted a few times, but without my friend there, I freaked out about getting caught and stopped voluntarily. I never got caught.

Seachica said...

Oh, and if you knew me, you'd know how absurd it is that I shoplifted. I have a squeaky clean rep amongst my friends and family

crila16 said...

I did when I was 5 years old. I stole a plastic bracelet that looked like pink and white chicklet gum. I saw it in the check out like and put it on. After leaving the store with my mom, I showed it to her and how pretty it was....needless to say, I never stole again after my mom got through with me. She made me go back and apologize to the store manager.

Anonymous said...

Nothing in my past. I remember when I was about 8 and wanted to spend my allowance, my father took me to the store. When we got back home, I started counting my money and realized I was given $.05 more in change than they should have. I told my dad and he made me get in the car, drove me back to the store and return that 5 cents.

Lessons like that stick with you for a lifetime.

iheartjacksparrow said...

I have never shoplifted, but about 25 years ago I watched a gal standing right next to me in the jewelry section of a department store stuff a bracelet in her purse, and I didn't do anything to keep her from getting away with it. It's haunted me ever since that I just stood there and did nothing.

Maja With a J said...

Once, when I was 14 or 15...I was with a "friend" who shoplifted pretty much everything she owned (her family wasn't poor or anything, she just did it to brag about it I think), and I fell for the peer pressure I guess and stole a pair of earrings. Except the store owner caught me...ALMOST. Because I ran. Like the wind (dropped the earrings in flight) and escaped home. I was so embarrassed, for weeks afterwards. I stopped hanging out with that girl after it happened.
Never did it again.

AndrewBW said...

When I was a kid my buddies and I shoplifted hundreds of comic books.

Mutiny said...

Accidently 2x.

First night before wedding, buying a bunch from drug store for wedding. Cashier forgot to ring up nail polish, didn't realize it till I got home.

Second time, my oldest daughter was two. We were at the mall, she grabbed one of those stamps that makes shapes in toast. It was a heart she grabbed it and stuck it in the stroller when we went by the display. Didn't see it until I was putting the stroller in the car.

I saw a woman shoplift butter once and the grocery store.

:| raven |: said...

Pez dispenser when i was about 6. my mom caught me in the back seat of the car with it. marched me right back into Albertsons and made me tell the manager that i had taken it!
humiliating!!

i have never EVER done anything like that again. every time i hear about someone shoplifting, i think of that moment.

deree said...

A bottle of foundation at 16. I was so terrified of getting caught never did it again either! My siblings,on the otherhand,were major shoplifters and so blessed they were never found out.

Ingrid Superstar said...

Never from a store, but when I was 12/13 I stole some books from my (at the time)local library that you couldn't check out because they were reference books. Around 7/8 years later I was moving out of town so I dumped them in the Book Return Slot Box with post-it's in each book apologizing for what I had done.

shopgirl said...

My local supermarket has this "self serve" checkout which sucks. Takes forever and I hate the idea that not only am I doing the job of two former employees (checker and bagger) but I don't get any discount. I still pay for doing the work of other people. So... when I can't find the garlic on the look-up-the-price-yourself screen, into my sack it goes. And don't get me started on how many apples I ended up getting (for free) because the machine kept yelling at me to put the item in my bag. Okey dokey. So, technically, I've kind of shoplifted a lot -- like the bell pepper because the only two choices on the screen were "organic" (not) and "extra large" (also not).

Audrey said...

Yep, as a pre-teen and teenager. My best friend worked at a drug store and she would steal the candy and let us steal it too. Not much though, just one or two bars a visit.

But, I actually ACCIDENTALLY shoplifted as an adult. I was at a Pier One like store and had a lamp on the bottom of my cart. I totally forgot about it until I left the store. I didn't return it or pay for it...I rationalized it by thinking that they probably earned enough profit from the items I did pay to cover the item I accidentally stole. AND, within a year, the base of the lamp developed flaws that were directly related to the low quality of the materials/construction. That's my story and I'm sticking to it! ;)

ooopsitsme said...

What's with the "white trash" comment. Was it contagious or something?

The 3 Foragers said...

Huge amounts of shoplifted goods by a kid who had shitty parents and too many kids. I HAD to lift bras, otherwise I had none. Once I got away with 11 cassettes in my pants at a music store. Once CDs came into being with those huge cardboard boxes, *almost* got caught with some JAne's Addiction CD in my shirt. The clerk wanted to know what was under my shirt (the pointy box), and I declared it was my hard nipples! Never caught, but stopped after that.

Lelaina Pierce said...

^Been caught stealing...with Jane's Addiction? Ironical.

I "accidentally" stole candy when I was maybe 3? 4? When my mom realized what happened, she lectured me on it & almost dragged me back inside to return it/apologize, but I was so hysterical and horrified, that she let me choose another punishment - No trick or treating. Looking back, she was probably being lazy and didn't want to deal with me, but me having one piece of candy vs. a bucket full of chocolate was a pretty good punishment.

Some of my friends went through this phase in middle school. Out of peer pressure one day, I stole something that was probably not even $2 and it mysteriously disappeared a few days later.

@shopgirl - I hate self check out too. So, I go through the REGULAR checkout. Does your grocery store seriously not have a single cashier?

I'm a little stunned at the grown ass adults rationalizing any type of stealing....really???

Mella said...

When I was a teenager . Tampons , bras and make up . All the stuff I was too embarrassed to buy. It all started because I got tired of trying to remove my leg hair with a pair of nail scissors and tweezers. So I went and stole a razor.

GomezParkinson said...

I used to shoplift all the time, just little junky things I didn't need but wanted.

I was on a road trip selling encyclopedias door-to-door in Central Jersey back in 1980 when I was 19 and they put us up, six in a room, two to each queen size bed and nobody was making any money and we were all hungry so I went into a supermarket, took a large paper shopping bag, filled it with food--lunch meat, bread, soda and crap, and walked right out the door. I took it back to the motel and we all had sandwiches.

I lived in Laguna Beach in 1981 and would take the bus to Tower records in El Toro and steal pre-recorded cassettes, sometimes as many as ten at a time. Once a little boy said to his father "that man is stealing" pointing at me. His father ignored him. Almost got caught once when the salesman at Buffums on Fashion Island in Newport Beach suggested that maybe I left something in the dressing room and should go back and look for it when I was stealing a pair of shorts underneath my pants. I went back and took the shorts off and left them on the bench.

The last thing I ever shoplifted was a Pete Townsend double cassette tape in Phoenix in 1982. I realized the world didn't owe me anything, especially not free Pete Townsend cassettes, so I stopped.

Dolly72 said...

I did once when I was about 13?? I went to Eatons, and wanted to buy some makeup. I had no idea what colors to buy, what to wear... I tried to get one of the snotty sales ladies to help me, and they pretty much told me to beat it. I had $120 to spend, and wanted to literally buy an entire makeup kit. (My mom did not wear makeup or do girly things, so I def needed help) Anyway, after being told to figuratively FO by the lovely Eatons ladies, I stuffed $100 worth of makeup in my bag and walked out. When I got to the middle of the mall, I fired it all in a garbage can. Only time I have ever stolen anything, but I was so angry and hurt that I didn't matter.

Anonymous said...

In high school I stole makeup and batteries for my walkman ALL THE TIME. Do I feel bad? Yes and I haven't done it since I was about 15.

Sue Ellen Mishkey said...

I stole a piece of candy from a store and when my mom found out she made me go back, apologize, and then dust the shelves!! I was about 5, or so. And it didn't work because in grade school my friends and I stole shitty keychains from Wonderland for no good reason.

ardleighstreet said...

Nope. I hated the thought of disappointing my parents so no never shoplifted.
Once due to the computer being down at the cashier I got $10 too much. So her drawer wouldn't read short, I tried to "count backwards" from the item and show her the error. I did this 4x. The man behind me finally said,
"Honey, give it up she's too freaking dumb to live." I did but do feel bad what happened to her. She was completely clueless though.

ooopsitsme said...

Well I guess I should warn you all then not to come to Australia, because here we kill people that we even suspect of stealing a packet of biscuits. The police have decided to do away with all that nasty legal court system crap and just deal out death by tazer on the spot.

I'm thinking about donating a packet of biscuits to the local police station so hopefully they won't kill the next person they suspect of stealing food.

DixieTheNoble82 said...

@Gomez - I really enjoyed reading your comment, quite the story & I like how a Pete Townsend was your last stop.

Yuffie said...

Apparently when I was 2 I stole a hand towel from a Bon-Ton in Maryland. My mom said that it matched the bathroom decor so she ended up keeping it. Later on, coincidentally while working together at Bon-Ton, my current boyfriend was arrested and fired for shoplifting a necklace and a purse.

Squid said...

For about 3 months when I was in 7th grade, Claire's Boutique was my personal hunting ground. I perfected the "tie your shoe and shove a cheap hair bauble in your sock" move. Then I started feeling guilty and figured I'd go to Hell since I was too embarrassed to confess my sin to the priest. Never did confess that or anything beyond "I was mean to my sister". No longer Catholic, so the opportunity to be sinless is long gone. I guess I'll see some of you in Hell. I'll be the one draped in cheap jewelry thinking impure thoughts.

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