Never, ever.

Sue

Stealing was never my thing... talking back... that's what always got me into trouble. Lol!

Yes, when I was about 10 I stole a bottle of cake sprinkles in a dare. We were so scared I went back to the store and put them back on the shelf. My son was 5 or 6 and stole a toy. I took him to the store manager to make his confessions. DH, who knew about my sordid past, claimed it was in son's genetics. :)

Yes, a book in sixth grade. I borrowed it from the class library and never returned it, even when the teacher asked me about it. He knew I was lying but he never did anything about it. I had that book for years and even into my teens, but I don't recall what happened to it after that. That was the only thing I ever stole. I can look guilty even when I'm not.

A very traumatic incident occurred to me when I was in first grade. Mom bought my school supplies at the 5 and dime pretty much the only store in our small town. My container of white paste was missing the little brush that stuck into the lid to allow you to dig out the paste and smear it on. So while mom was next door grocery shopping I went to the 5 and dime to get the missing paste brush. I realized I was going to have to take one from one of the jars, which is probably how mine was missing, I mean we did Pat for it. So I was nervously fiddling with the paste jars about to make my move when from the next aisle I hear this horribly scary sounding robotic voice. Not talking to me but I didn't know what the heck it was. I thought it was an alien voice like the movies. I went flying out of there found mom was crying and shaking. She asked me what happened. I said there's an alien monster next door. So after she finished paying for the groceries she made me go back so we could see what had scared me. She was pretty sure it wasn't an alien monster lol. Turns out it was an older gentleman who had throat cancer and his voice box was removed and he was using one of those hand held voice electrolarynx devices. I never ever considered stealing anything again.

Stole a nickel from my parent's bedside table to buy an icecream cone. No one was home, so I helped myself. A friend was with me and we ran into my mother outside on the street and my face said it all. She said...what did you do? Guilty...lol

And here I was thinking I was really a bad apple. Nice to see there's others out there.

This is super terrible but very memorable. I was about 11 or so, visiting HYDE PARK (FDR home). They had a pin cushion which also had a pull out measuring tape - it was to look like FDR's dog, FALA. The measuring tape came out of Fala's mouth. I was with 2 friends, and we did it. Every time for the rest of the day when we saw anyone in a uniform we trembled.

Never, ever. Quite a few four-legged animals have stolen my heart, though. Lol

I don't remember ever doing so. But both my children did...once...only once...

When i was about eight, I stole a candy bar from the little store by where I lived. My mom took me back to the store and made me pay out of my allowance. The owner of the store banned me for two weeks.

When I was in jr high, I was with a group of girls and we all stole a pair of earrings. I remember they cost $3. I felt so guilty and never wore those earrings and never stole again. About 2 years later, I was with two different girls shopping at a mall. The mom that we were with, let us shop by ourselves. One of the girls wanted to steal a teen type magazine. I said I didn't want anything to do with it so I left the store. I waited in the assigned place where we were to meet the mom for about 15 minutes. One of the girls came running up and said that they got caught. The girl that stole the magazine got taken away. They checked the other girl's bags and she hadn't stolen anything so they let her go. We waited for about an hour with the thief's mom at the assigned place and made up a story that she was still shopping and we were done. If I remember right they gave her a good stern warning not to do it again. I remember when we were in high school that same girl and her cousin were arrested for shop lifting. Guess she didn't learn her lesson. I know I sure did and I didn't get caught.

Never.

Nope. But I cheated on a test once in 6th grade and it's still bothering me. 50 years later.

I plead the 5th! Only because I know I must have but I'm at an age where I can't remember what!

Seeds hanging off spent flowers in neighbors' gardens bc I knew they wouldn't sow them. And once I pinched some herb stems from a botanical garden, but they never rooted. I think I made up for it by giving away many plants over the years. And one year someone stole several fancy pots full of dahlias and annuals from my yard. The nerve! I only grow not so pretty things in not so fancy pots out there now.

I don't think I ever stole anything, but I had three older sisters who would have helped keep an eye on me. And I have plenty of other youthful transgressions to feel sorry about -- my mom was no slouch in the guilt department!

I don't remember if I did.

My son Michael was 13 and took a comic book off the shelf in the grocery stores check out lane.when we arrived home I was told by younger brother. I went to my room called the store manager who I kinda sorta knew and made arrangements unbeknown by my son. I took Michael to the store and he confessed his theft to the manager who promply handed Michael a broom and told him anything worth having is worth working for please go outside and sweep the walks clean than you can empty 3 garbage cans and wash the glass on the front door, when your finished I shall pay you. I sat and waited while Michael did these small tasks. Once he was finished the manager handed him the comic book and said you have now earned it, but if you steal from me again I won't give you the chance to earn what you took I will call the police.I don't know of him ever stealing again.

It has been a long, long time; but I remember it well. I stole a woman's heart.

No I didn't take objects and my children didn't either as far as I know. I have always had a strong conscience and did my best to instill it in our children. It seems it is almost a rite of passage for some kids/teens. I remember being so uncomfortable if I was out with friends who took things. I never understood why. Some had more money than I did.

But back in the day I did make free phone calls. Those little blue boxes. ;-) I'm also pretty sure my kids borrowed bandwidth at one time or another.

I never stole anything. My mother ruled with a stern hand. If I'd every stolen and been caught, I'd be grounded to this day. And I'm 54 and my mother is gone! She would have stipulated in her will that I was grounded for life. :P

I don't recall - I think I need a lawyer!

Good one Jim....made me laugh! I stole a man's heart once, 50 years ago. He never got it back. I never stole anything tangible.

Yes, I have and it was just about 3 years ago. I was in Lowes and decided to buy an African Violet. On the shelf next to the Violet was a few leaves from a burro's tail plant that was on a shelf above. I put a leaf in the pot with the violet, figuring that these little leafs are just going to lay here and shrivel up and die anyway. . I had forgotten about it when I got the violet home. A couple months later, that little leaf had become rooted and grew a few leaves of it's own. Couldn't kill it, so this is what my little leaf looks like today. I am ashamed of myself, but I am not about to fess up and take it back now!!

Gazania, I hope you're kidding that you're ashamed at taking some leaves that dropped off a plant!

I've never taken anything.

Sheilaaus, did you ever send the measuring tape back to Hyde Park? Just curious.

I accidentally stole a plant a few years ago. I was at the nursery and picked out the plant which was in a plastic pot. Next, I selected a pretty pot to plant it in. Because I had several things I was carrying around, I put the plant in the plastic pot inside the decorative pot. When I checked out, the clerk charged me for the decorative pot, but not the plant.

I didn't notice until after I got home (50 miles), but I notified the store. They thanked me for my honesty, told me not to worry about it and to enjoy the plant. I'm more careful these days to make sure I am charged for every item I buy.

I guess I should mention having taken items out of a few stores, including Walmart, without paying for them. It sometimes happens when my handicapped scooter basket gets overloaded and I put somethings on it's floor between my feet. We always have discovered what we have forgotten when DH loads the scooter into the van. Of course we always go back into the store and confess what we have done and pay for the items. Seems like the clerks are always amazed that we are being honest.

Igmd_gaz - Sometimes I go to the local nursery, when I need that greenhouse atmosphere fix and water plants and dead head, etc. In return, I can have anything discarded in the bins. Other times they have cuttings for me, when I'm shopping.

As for Walmart if you ever get 'caught' there's always cake with a file in it.

No, never. When in a store, if I pick up something to buy, I immediately look for a cashier.

summer, now that is a good nursery!

Shoplifting at Walmart seems to be a habit with people around here. The daily police report in the local paper at least 95% of the time includes a story of 1 or more people caught shoplifting at Walmart. . My neighbor, a policeman, says it is a rare shift for him to not be called to Walmart due to a shoplifter.

I stole a couple of things on dares when I was a teenager. I wasn't caught, and felt terribly guilty. Never stole anything again.

I take Xmas greens every year from Lowes or HD. They are in the trash can at the trimming shop and I always tell the cashier on my way out that they were in the trash can. I use them for decorating.

Do any of you remember Trading Cards? A friend and I went to a younger girl's home to play 'cards'. I badly wanted one of the younger girl's cards -- a Collie dog, as I recall -- but she wouldn't trade it. My friend dared me to take the card while the girl wasn't looking...and I DID!

I couldn't live with it! The next day I went back to her home to return the card. The girl's mother answered the door. Her *silence* in the face of my apology was memorable. She took the card and shut the door. (See how well I remember it all seventy years later!)

That wasn't very gracious or adult of her, chisue. What a meanie!

I've never stolen anything, but I can't tell you how many times my son attempted to do so. Whenever I intended to shop in large stores, like Walmart, I brought no stroller and simply used the shopping cart seat for my son. In a cart, he was at a higher level, where his little hands were very visible. But if I was just going to smaller stores within the mall, I'd bring a stroller. Smaller stores often had no 'aisles' to keep a decent distance from displays, which are often low down, at stroller level. Back then, strollers didn't have reversible handles, so my toddler had to face away from me. I once left a store and started walking down the main aisle of the mall, when I noticed an item in the stroller that my son must have grabbed off a low shelf. After the third time this happened, I realized my one year old was a pathological shoplifter, so I checked his stroller before leaving every store, lol!

I stole a horse one time....about 50 yrs ago. She belonged to a good friend who died. He had a big ranch and lots of horses. Had he known I had her, he would have been happy. I parked my car an a back road, rode the horse home bareback and then went back and got it. I chickened out and called his ranch foreman and told him I found her out on the road and he came and got her. I should have kept her.

Well, there was the vending machine in college where once I bought something and the packet on its way down knocked off a packet of something else below it. I did end up taking both packets.

But of course there was no way to put the second packet back in the machine... so...

But that's been it.

There was a period in time where subliminal messages were played within elevator music in some department stores... saying don't steal or something to that effect. I remember being in a department store once and having the most incredible urge to take something and not pay for it... I wasn't even walking through an area sellling anything I'd remotely want. The urge totally floored me.

Found out later about the subliminal message thing. I think my loathing of elevator muzak was (and is) so intense that I was recieving the reverse message than was intended. (I didn't succumb.)

A few months ago, I had a rousing visit with friends over lunch and then had to attend to someone's concerns at the front of the restaurant. In the confusion, and not having received a bill, I forgot to pay. I went back the next day and settled my bill with a waitress who was quite unperturbed about the incident. She said that most people would not have bothered.