I am not advocating shoplifting, but we all did something dumb as a kid. What is your story?
Me, I was 2 years old and at Tim Hortons with my mother and a family friend. This was almost 50 years ago and Tim Hortons still had servers back then, so there was a cutout in the counter for them to go in and out. The donuts are in racks behind the counter. I had had a chocolate donut paid for by my mother, and apparently I decided I wanted another, and I was so little I nipped behind the counter when nobody was there, helped myself to another, and was only discovered when my mother noticed me polishing off a different donut. She did pay for it and everyone laughed, I was just little and it was funny. Sadly the quality of Tim Hortons donuts has gone way downhill over the intervening years, as older Canadians know.
When I was a teenager I once started reading a newspaper and walked out of a grocery store, not realizing you had to pay for them. I was distressed and one of my parents called the store and explained the situation and we paid for the newspaper the next time we went in.
When I was a small child, I once ate a gummy between the bulk candy bins. When explained later that you aren’t just allowed to take the candy and you have to pay for it, I panicked.
Neither of these were intentional thefts, but maybe they count.
LOL not understanding how shopping works as a little kid doesn’t make you a thief. I feel no guilt about my donut.
weirdly I still feel guilty, but I think part of it is that I also was shocked by not understanding such a fundamental aspect of society, an aspect that is criminalized and carries such serious consequences. I had a step-aunt who was in my life much later, and she served actual jail time for getting caught stealing a Hallmark card for mother’s day from like a Walgreens. Her ability to find a job when she was stuck raising her baby as a single mom was compromised and the legal system really fucks you even for petty stuff like that.
Probably more than a hallmark card for actual jail time… unless a minority.
I think it wasn’t her first time getting caught, tbh
I suspect the Hallmark card is the story you were told.
not sure why they would lie about that considering the other things they were honest about, lol
you also have to understand that this family tended to not hold back about sharing disparaging details, shame was an important lever for behavioral adjustment and even small mistakes were punished
Sonuva… I just wrote almost exactly the same story about not realizing you even can steal a newspaper as a kid.
lol, glad to hear I’m not the only one - I felt like there was something really wrong with me 😅