Did you ‘fess up later? I’ve never done this, nuh-uh, no sirree, not me… 
Oh crap, I have severe guilt issues over this.
We had a " Mommie Dearest" style mother and as the youngest, and only son, I could do no wrong.
Until I was around 8 or 9 years old, I used to intentionally provoke trouble with my sisters, and sit back to watch the fireworks.
I tried to make it up to them once I was around 12, and would “fess up” to whatever mom was having a tantrum about.
This one brings up some sore spots in me. I always fess up. I have worked with people who never fess up and worse yet steal credit from others for good things that were done. If I witness this in an adult they are off my friend list or respect list forever.
Last time I can remember and it was at least 30 years ago. A co-worker got yelled at for something I had asked her to do. I told my boss that I had asked for her help, much to her disappointment because she didn’t like the co-worker. The co-worker was shocked that I stood up for her. It wasn’t that the co-worker did anything wrong, it appeared she had overstepped her boundaries, which she hadn’t.
It’s not in me to let somebody else take the heat for something I did.
One the flip side, pity the fool who tries to dump on me.
Don’t look at me. I swear that was the dog.
I’m not sure this is quite what the OP means, but I’ll tell the story anyway.
About 15 years ago, when I was working in retail, I had a “co-worker” Daryl, I absolutely detested. I put co-worker in quotes because he never did any actually work, but put a lot of effort into getting me to do his work so he could get paid commission off my effort. Anyway, I left that job to go into banking, then later took a part-time at another location of the same chain on the theory that there was no such thing as too much money. Working one night, I saw Daryl in my store. I happened to know that he’d gotten fired, and as there was an alert out about a thief who was doing no-sales and stealing from registers at various stores, I called our security office and told them there was a suspicious person in my area they should keep an eye on. In fact I was just stirring up shit, hoping to get him inconvenienced–only he DID get caught trying to steal from a register, as he WAS the no-sale thief.
So Daryl got arrested and spent at least a night in jail, while I got commended for my vigilance and was given a nice reward, when my only intention had been to be a jackasss.
Several years ago when I was working in a lab, I signed for a package and forgot to put it in the freezer, even though it was clearly marked to do so. I put it on the table and went about my business.
A couple of days later, I walked into the lab to find it in a tizzy. Apparently one of the post-docs had gone off on a couple of technicians and had blamed them for them for ruining his polymerase. They denied having any involvement, but he didn’t believe them. The package had completely escaped my mind, so I kind of tuned the whole thing out. But then it all came rushing back to me. Everyone’s bad mood was MY fault!
I apologized to the guy and accepted responsibility, and then informed my boss so that the technicians wouldn’t be called to the carpet. I felt horrible about it at the time, but now it seems like incredibly small potatoes. It all worked out in the end.
I do have to admit there was a tiny part of me that didn’t want to say anything. It was a big lab with lots of technicians and graduate students and post-docs. Any one of us could have been the culprit. But since people had already been falsely accused, I knew I had to do the right thing.
I had an incident at work. It didn’t seem serious, I didn’t report it, but two or three hours later my co-worker got a text asking about it. He asked me how he should respond and I said to respond truthfully; I did something, I reacted in what seemed like a reasonable way, if that’s wrong then it’s my bad. A while later I had the boss on the line and he said not to worry about it, it’s nothing.
That evening on my way home from work I got a call from my co-worker. He said he just got fired for not reporting my incident. I called the boss but he did not answer. The next day I tracked down a number of people in charge and confessed my involvement and my co-workers non involvement. They all said it was the culmination of a long chain of events with him and to basically mind my own business.
I was pretty worried for about a month. Am I next? I did what he did and then some, right? After following up with the boss at least 8 times he finally printed up a counseling form stating a very generous and minimized account of what happened, suggesting I try not to do it again, with suggested disciplinary action being an informal verbal counseling session for which I would acknowledge receipt by signing the bottom of the form.
I guess it was some closure, but I’ve never felt good about it. By all accounts the guy was on their shit list for a while. He didn’t know when to speak up and when to grin and bear it and when to stop beating a dead horse. He was fairly religious, a bit strange, and he put a lot of people off. But we worked together 8-12 hours a day 5 days a week for several months and it feels shitty that I provided the final nail in the coffin. I kicked the job to the curb but I still talk to him.