Meh, my sisters and I were allowance-spoiled brats, so there was no need to steal if we wanted something. And my friends and I never dared each other to, as most kids I know were in the same boat; if I wanted something, but didn’t want to pay for it, well, I’d just ask my parents and it would usually be mine. But I stole something a few months ago. By accident. But I couldn’t take it back. Because it was too embarassing.
I was trying on some cute lingerie at La Senza. I put on the babydoll top, and slide the cute panties on over my own. It was cute, but I was really just trying it on for fun. So I changed back into my clothes, handed the salesgirl the babydoll, and walked out of the store. Only to realise I was wearing two pairs of panties. What was I supposed to do? Head to the washroom, remove the panties, and waltz back into the store with a “Here, I forgot to give you these back… sorry!”?
But they are pretty cute, and I feel kinda naughty when I wear my ill-gotten gains. “hey baby, I’m wearing stolen panties…”
A lot of my friends tried to goad me into the shoplifting game during my teen years. I resisted.
However, when I was 17 I took a Snickers bar from a store to see if I could steal something. I got a bit of a thrill.
Then when I was about 18 I stole from the register of the gas station where I worked, on a pretty regular basis: I justified this to myself (erroneously) with the knowledge that the people who ran it were paying me $2 per hour when they were meant to pay me $4, and that my manager had showed me how rig the register it on this basis.
When I was a student I once ended up so broke that I stole to eat.
Then I went to Japan. On my first night in Tokyo, I stole a bottle of beer from a crate outside a restaurant. The expression on my Japanese host’s face was enough to stop me altogether. I haven’t knowingly stolen anything since.
I know, I’ve read where you talked about them taking all of your money from your account. That would have destroyed so much trust between me and my parents (going either way, me stealing from them or vice versa). To this day my mom does my banking (seeing as she works in the industry and I get perks if her name is on my accounts), my parents have access to my bank accounts in Cali and routinely transfer money out of it still to put in my permanent accounts out in Massachusetts.
I’m so trusting with them…but I know they would never screw me over.
Nope, I never stole anything, and I never would have considered it just a normal part of being a teenager. Which means I don’t have any interesting stories to share. But if the thread only got posts from people with interesting stories about stealing, the data would be skewed.
I’ve never stolen anything, especially not tangibles. I wouldn’t consider it a normal activity, although I did know of kids who shoplifted from the card store on a regular basis (until it closed down for not entirely unrelated reasons).
Nope. I meant ‘morals’. There’s more then one of them that stops me stealng. For example, not taking something that isn’t mine, and another one would be not wanting to get someone else into trouble. (For example, an innocent shop assistant getting into trouble because stock is missing.)
I don’t think someone has no morals just because they stole. Different ones from me maybe, or even just as you said, a momentary weakness.
I stole CDs a couple of times until I got busted.
Sitting in the little room with the store detective I noticed the title of one track on the Smiths CD I had tried to nick: “Shoplifters of all countries unite”.
Yep. I was in 5th grade, so probably about 11 years old, and had fallen in with older boys who got me started. (I had my first cigarette then thanks to them too.) Strictly candy from the drugstore. Got caught, had to estimate the dollar amount and paid it all back.
There were no police or arrests involved. But this was in 1969 or so - I’m 48 now.
Nope, never stole. I read my sister’s diary once when I was 12 and she was 13 where she confessed to stealing some make-up from the drug store. Scandelous.
I have friends who do fairly regularly and I refuse to shop with them or, in some cases, take gifts from them.
A few of them will take things from big places like wal-mart but won’t steal from, like, mom-and-pop shops or individual people.
I wouldn’t really think of it as a normal teenager thing, but smoking pot and having sex and skipping class and such don’t seem normal to me either. I’m just a goody-goody I guess.
I did a little in high school. A friend of mine had a “magic jacket” that was apparently great for stealing. We (or at least I) really only stole stuff they wouldn’t sell us. Like porn mags when we were 15 and fireworks when we were 17. Haven’t done it since, I know better than to make such stupid decisions now.
Earrings, rings, and make-up. Little things I could pocket. I never felt guilty, but stopped because I was afraid of getting caught. It just got too nerve-racking, I didn’t get a “rush” like some people describe. I didn’t enjoy it. I just was broke and wanted pretty things.
Once. A tube of mascara. It was kinda boring, and I never did it again. I was about thirteen or so, I’m 22 now.
I guess I view shoplifting as part of “normal” growing up, if there’s really only a couple of instances and then the kid grows out of it after a few years. IMHO it seems to relate back to testing the boundaries of authority. Most people grow out of it once they’ve left their early teens, but a few with certain social relationship problems may continue into adulthood and so on.
Stealing huh? … yeah. When I was 13 to 15 I swiped Playboys and Hustlers and the like left and right. I never felt guilty at that. Nobody else stole porn? It seems like the stuff we couldn’t get would be highest on the list.
It did embolden me to try a 50¢ candy bar for which I did get caught and had to wait in a jail cell for my mom to come pick me up. The other guys asked me what I did and I said “Shoplifting” and they all moved away from me. Then they laughed and we “hung out” till the bus to juvie came to take us away, you see my mom was late and kids weren’t supposed to spend the night in jail. So I begged the cops to let me stay, that my mom would come. I’ve never thought to ask her if she came right away for me or left me to rot for a hew hours. When she did …, oh what a face. That was the last time I did that. My dad actually laughed and asked me if I was going to do that again. I said no and he said good.
By the way, on the report which you can’t access since I was a minor my M.O. is listed as “extremely polite.” The store was content to bar me for 1 year.
I stole money from my grandparents which I felt and continue to feel extreme guilt about. Even before I got caught. This happened during the porn but before the candy bar.
My sister was as a pro at lifting items like clothes. And then she had the gall to take the clothes back into the store and return it for store credit! She never got caught.
My criminal career lasted from 13 to 15, my sister stopped at 17. A lot of the teens we knew did it. Mostly just small stuff. It seems the girls went for higher priced items like clothing and jewelry though.
While walking through a car lot one day when I was 16 I found the keys to a brand new pontiac. I briefly considered it before handing the keys to the sales manager the next day.
That’s the complete list of my teenselves actions.
I have stolen a couple things in my life, but I’m not very proud of it, but I don’t regret it. When I was 14, I got into a huge fight with my parents, and they threw me out. I lived with my sister a year and when I was almost 16, she found out I was “one who partakes in the green” and kicked me out. I lived in my little Hyundai for almost a whole year, working part time after I got out of high school to pay for what food I could. I did, at this time, go to places like a farmers market or something to that effect. I would often steal fresh fruit (just a piece or two here or there) and then sometimes I even went to a grocery store when I was low on food and got a can of soup or two. There were no big cities very close to where I stayed (I parked at an abandon train station at night) and often the grocery stores didn’t even have detectors at the front.
I wouldn’t steal now, even though I am in need at times. I just don’t know why I ever did in the first place, honestly, other than food. I guess a friend of mine put me off on the taking of other things when he broke into my parents house to steal stuff…he got about 1500 worth of stuff (new digital camera, video recorder, nice tv, cash…) and used it all on drugs. I guess I don’t see it the same as most, if I would’ve been caught stealing food to live off of, I wouldn’t expect to be punished too harshly. I would punish a child who stole for the thrill or illicit gains, though.
I stole a couple of cars. Used to break into homes and steal stereos and TVs and crap like that. Okay, not really. However, I did use to take change from the fountain at the mall.
