I've never stolen so much as a piece of candy from the bulk bins, not even as a child. My Mother raised me better than that. I'll never forget this one time we were grocery shopping, we were so poor, Mom didn't receive any food stamps or other assistance, and our Father had stopped paying child support less than a year after Mom divorced him, so times were really tough with just her paycheck alone. We took a calculator with us to the store because Mom only had so much for groceries. We couldn't even afford meat, that was a luxury we rarely had at that time, but for some reason, something must've told Mom to look in the meat bins that day. She found a package for a whole, cut-up chicken fryer marked as only being .14 cents. Instead of Mom snatching it up and looking for more mispriced meat to buy, she took it, and tried to find the butcher in the department to report it to. But he wasn't anywhere to be found. We asked other employees, and they told us he was on his lunch, and nobody else was in the meat dept. who could help us. So Mom actually waited for him to come back from his lunch. The employees thought she was nuts for not just taking the chicken and leaving it at that, but Mom refused. She wanted to do the right thing, to alert them to the mistake so they wou...
I've never stolen so much as a piece of candy from the bulk bins, not even as a child. My Mother raised me better than that. I'll never forget this one time we were grocery shopping, we were so poor, Mom didn't receive any food stamps or other assistance, and our Father had stopped paying child support less than a year after Mom divorced him, so times were really tough with just her paycheck alone. We took a calculator with us to the store because Mom only had so much for groceries. We couldn't even afford meat, that was a luxury we rarely had at that time, but for some reason, something must've told Mom to look in the meat bins that day. She found a package for a whole, cut-up chicken fryer marked as only being .14 cents. Instead of Mom snatching it up and looking for more mispriced meat to buy, she took it, and tried to find the butcher in the department to report it to. But he wasn't anywhere to be found. We asked other employees, and they told us he was on his lunch, and nobody else was in the meat dept. who could help us. So Mom actually waited for him to come back from his lunch. The employees thought she was nuts for not just taking the chicken and leaving it at that, but Mom refused. She wanted to do the right thing, to alert them to the mistake so they wouldn't lose the money on the item. When the butcher finally came back and Mom showed him the package, he just said what was done was done, and if she didn't buy it, someone else would. So finally, Mom took it with a clear conscious. She still showed it to the cashier, and told the woman that she'd tried to alert them to their mistake, but the cashier didn't care, she said she'd buy it if Mom didn't. So we took it home, and were able to have a chicken dinner, the first time we'd had meat for supper for probably that whole month. Mom taught me and my siblings that no matter what, even if you were poor and hungry, honesty was always the best policy, that our integrity was more important than trying to get something for nothing.
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When I was about 8 or 9, I was in a drugstore waiting for my mom to come pick me up. I'd made a purchase already but was wandering around the store until my mom came. One of the clerks must have assumed I was putting stuff in the bag because she was following me (I was aware of her following me) and then she called the manager who came up to me and asked to see in my bag. I let him see in it, and he realized I only had my purchases in the bag, so he stapled the bag shut and gave me some speech about being careful in stores with open bags because people could think I'm putting stuff in them blah, blah, blah. (I realized as an adult that they would not have treated an adult like this.)
But the lesson was learned, and I have never considered shoplifting anything, even as a dare.
Never stole anything since.
If I were starving I might do it to eat though. Thank goodness that has never happened.
People don't have money sometimes.
On the way home they don't stop to buy food, they stop to steal food. And frequently get caught.
If they don't have food money they probably don't have bail money.
Of course if you try that now days they'll press charges on you. Saw that in the news a few months back, a couple accidentally walked out with a bottle of water and when they went back into the store to pay for it they were charged with shoplifting.