Same thing that’s been wrong with them forever, they’re stupid humans.
I’m like the OP, smoke, drank, etc., but never stole except one time. It was this little hair barrette and my friend was taking one so I took one. That thing was like the telltale heart under my mattress. I got rid of it and never even considered stealing again.
I did. I stole coins from my mother’s purse, and candy from convenience stores, a lot as a kid.
When I was about 14 or 15, I stole a couple of record albums from a record store. I was so sure that we (my friend & I) had been chased after we left the store, but we weren’t caught.
However, that was the last thing I ever took. I don’t even pilfer office supplies now (hell, I buy a lot of my own, and bring in things for other people to use).
You’ve never done a single immoral thing in your entire life because you are incapable of it? :eek:
A couple things, books, candy, and a giant movie display of “Stargate”. I still have that for some reason.
I stole candybars from the Tom Thumb convenience store when I was around fourteen. It was a short phase, I just felt too guilty.
Oh, and one time when I was in an accessories shop (Afterthoughts, I think it was called) I found an earring that I thought would make a perfect nose ring (a very small, thin, silver hoop). Only problem was someone had stolen its mate, so I just slipped it off the card and palmed it. I was probably 18 then, and I just didn’t see the harm in it at the time. Now I would take it up to a salesperson and ask for a discount.
My younger brother and I borrowed by Moms car when I was like 15 without permission.
We also borrowed this douchebags car after he entrusted my friend with the keys while he played football. He was pretty pissed.
So technically, two cars.
Although it’s not really stealing since we didn’t want to keep them.
I’m sure I’ve done something that someone would consider immoral. I’m just talking about stealing here. And my own moral codes, rather then immorality (is that even a word?) at large.
I never stole anything, but most of my friends did, at one time or another. One guy, actually a very close friend, still shop lifts regularly, and he’s in his early thirties. It bugs me, and I’ve asked him to at least not do it when I’m around, but I’m pretty sure he just does it and doesn’t let me in on it. Oddly, although most of my friends would never shoplift, I can’t think of a single one who doesn’t regularly steal pint glasses from bars and restaurants. These aren’t a bunch of skeevy losers or anything, either. They’re mostly professionals in their thirties.
I shoplifted makeup and earrings before I got into high school. I knew it was wrong and I did it anyway. I still feel guilty about it. I know it would have KILLED my parents.
I think two days jail time is a very harsh sentence, and I’m surprised they gave it to her. People who beat the shit out of others frequently get away with NO jail time. I don’t get it.
God no and I never felt the need. I had an afterschool job and even though my parents took all of my money (to put in CDs and mutual funds for me) they’d usually let me have 10$ of it for whatever shiny pen or anything I wanted. I’m not a huge rule follower but I’m very leery of doing anything that results in jail time.
And I tremble now thinking of my parents’ rage over me getting caught stealing.
Yes, twice. Once when the school band went out of town for a festival, a bunch of us stole odd things from stores, on a dare. My theft was a bottle of Coppertone. Some of the other kids came back with clothes, and one of them had a coat – a long coat. Not sure how she managed that.
The other time, we searched cars parked outside a supper club, and stole cigarettes and beer.
I never stole anything on my own, and I’ve been scrupulously honest since my teens. I’ll turn in money found dropped on a floor, and if I’m undercharged for something, I’ll tell the cashier. I’d never put office supplies in my purse or use company postage. Hell, I never even made personal phone calls on company time.
I chalk those two escapades up to peer pressure, much like my early drinking and smoking and going out with carnies. 
Two of my kids shoplifted and were caught, in their early teens – a record album and a Rubik’s cube. Both did community service. As far as I know, that cured them. We never had much while they were growing up, and if there were “new” things in their rooms, I would have noticed.
I think it’s fairly normal, but maybe I’m rationalizing.
I never stole anything. Only one of my five best friends ever stole anything. He actually went through a “shoplifting from stores phase” for a month or so before realizing he was really pushing his luck – he never got caught, he wanted to quit while he was ahead! It was always really small, petty stuff that he stole, and we all kept warning him that he had better stop. I guess our lecturing finally got to him!
anu-la1979, it’s definitely not financial need that has driven my niece to steal. Parents are quite wealthy and they give her most of the things she wants on top of everything she needs. When she was arrested she had $65 in her purse.
I really think it’s a thrill thing for her. My daughter is the same age and she doesn’t feel comfortable around her anymore because she’s always coming up with schemes or trying to talk her into doing stupid things.
Luckily my daughter just rolls her eyes and comes home to tell me about her antics.
I will say it was a financial thing for me. I mean, my parents provided, but I got no spending cash - no allowance, ever. And I think an allowance is really important for kids, don’t you? Just to buy whatever stupid little things they want. Even anu’s parents gave her a little bit!
Their names aren’t “Lucy” and “Ethel” by any chance? Are the schemes “hare-brained?”
When we used to do it, it was kind of a game. One thing a friend of mine stole that was especially prized was a poster off some guy’s wall. It was a ratty piece of crap, not framed or anything, but the reason it was so “good” was that she took it while the guy was actually close by, so there was great risk of getting caught, and also it was something that he would be sure to notice later and wonder “what the heck happened to my poster?” At least, that was how we pictured it. In reality, the guy probably noticed it was gone and thought, “I wonder why that dippy bitch took my poster.”
I guess you must have meant “silly moral”, then. I wouldn’t be nitpicking this if you hadn’t implied that everyone posting here who has stolen was only capable of doing so because they had no morals. But I accept that you did so unintentionally, and I understand now that you just meant about stealing. I hope you do understand that even people who have stolen have morals, and even probably had them at the time of the theft. For many it’s a momentary weakness, not a condemnation of their entire character.
Well, it was my money, technically, not an allowance.
Remember how they used to have cigarettes as a point of sale item on the counter at gas stations and in end caps at the grocery store? Boy those were easy to swipe. Did it a few times during the period of starting to smoke and the period of finding shop keepers who didn’t care who they sold smokes to.
The only other thing was I had been out shopping by myself at the mall, and while waiting for my mom to pick me up, I went into a new store called Best Buy that I hadn’t been in. I considered a bunch of different tapes, and some of them I carried around with me while I looked at other stuff. My hands were full of bags, and the tapes had that long plastic anti theft device case on them, which made a great handle. I walked out, I swear inadvertantly, while still holding on to the Circle Jerks tape Wild in The Streets. The alarm went off and the lights flashed, but I didn’t pay any attention since I wasn’t stealing anything that I knew of.
When I realized what I did I got freaked out and hid behind cars until my mom came and got me.