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.

  • dandelion (she/her)@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    6 months ago

    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.

    • BonesOfTheMoon@lemmy.worldOP
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      6 months ago

      LOL not understanding how shopping works as a little kid doesn’t make you a thief. I feel no guilt about my donut.

      • dandelion (she/her)@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        6 months ago

        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.

    • sp3ctr4l@lemmy.zip
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      6 months ago

      Sonuva… I just wrote almost exactly the same story about not realizing you even can steal a newspaper as a kid.