From the vault
I love taking personality quizes, and often stop by Spark and Emode to see if they have any new tests up.Occasionally I'll be asked something like, "have you ever stolen anything?" and I always answer no, ...thinking they don't mean stealing from myself, stealing chord progressions, or stealing ideas.
But I just remembered that on top of a theif, I'm a liar! I did steal, and now I'm coming clean.
I don't know if I wiped these memories from my brain-pan because I did not want to deal with them or if I just forgot them in time like I forget most things. Either way, they were erased from my memory until today.
1. I had one of those word processors that pre-dated user friendly and inexpensive computers. Back then, in the early 90's, almost no one had their own personal computer. Sure, techies had it, and families had it, but not single, poor college students. So, I had this glorified typewriter that had a digital display that would show something like 12 lines of text at a time. It had almost no memory, so all info had to be stored on floppy disks.
Well, the semester was winding down and I needed to finish up some papers, but my disk ran out of space. I couldn't trash any of the existing files, and I didn't have another disk. (Yeah, this is before floppies were as disposable as napkins). I had ZERO cash, so I was really up a creek.
I went to the nearest office depot, remembering that the word processors they had on display contained a floppy disk (otherwise they would not work). So, I casually asked the clerk to show me the processors, then told him I'd think about it. As he walked away, I ejected the floppy, slipped it into my sleeve and walked to the pen and pencil aisle.
I checked over the disk a few times for any security devices and didn't see any (that's how dumb I was, who would put a magnetic strip on a magnetic disk in a disk drive!). I slid it back into my sleeve, watched the clerks closely, and slipped out the front door, into my car, and sped out of there feeling like crap for having to do it.
2. I stole three other items in my life. They were all in the same summer in college, like 1991 or 1992. I stole a licorace rope from a vendor at an outdoor festival on a dare. I stole a cheap bracelet with my friend who was doing the same thing at the same festival, and I stole a cheap wooden necklace at summerfest with the same friend. I guess we liked "sticking it to the man", and took only extremely cheap merchandise.
I realized how easy it was. Make a small distraction, pick a spot that has weak defences (bad sight lines), and half-steal it first. By that I mean, palm the item and walk near the cashier or clerk. If he sees you or if someone sees you, you can pretend you are merely purchasing the item or asking a question about it.
So much stuff is unguarded. Still, sometimes when I am at a small store or market, I marvel at how easy it would be to steal the place blind. No one is watching for it, and even if they are, they can't be everywhere. It was all so easy that I started to think about going for bigger scores, but fortunately I did not.
I knew it was wrong, and basically never did it again.
Not counting stealing post-it note pads from work, ...or paper, ...or pens.
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