this post was submitted on 04 Jan 2025
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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.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 days ago (1 children)

According to my mom, the calcium off her teeth.

"My dentition was so great, but then you came."

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

A prop gift in a store after holiday season. It was just about tiny enough to fit in my pocket. Imagine my disappointment when I tore off the wrapping paper and found a cube of Styrofoam. I was like 5 at the time.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 days ago
[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

I read a YA book about someone methodically planning, then stealing a computerized chess board (a big deal in the 80's/early 90's). They recorded people saying different words for the audio message telling the clerk to lock themself in the BATHROOM, timed it out, etc. While this obviously wasn't me, it always stuck with me, and I somehow got secondhand guilt from it...

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 days ago

I was like 7 and wanted some disks for a Bionicle, but I didn't want to hold onto it the entire time while looking at toys. So I put it in my pocket... and forgot about it.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 4 days ago (1 children)

A newspaper.

Did not know it was stealing... I was ... maybe 7?

Up until that point in my life, I'd only ever been to stores or restaurants that had free flyers or small community newsletters.

First time I was in a similar small store, I assumed full, 30+ page newspapers worked the same way.

After being informed that full newspapers cost money, and I had stolen it, I returned it.

The store clerk did not even realize I had taken the paper, laughed, appreciated my honesty, and gave me a tootsie pop.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 days ago
[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 days ago

M:tG cards back in the late 90s.

There was a local comic book store called (no shit) The Funk Pit, which kept the mid tier cards stored in 3 ring binders full of those plastic card sleeves, and common cards stored in an "Inch Box" where they just charged you by the height of your stack. My friend and I would occasionally sneak a more expensive card out of the binder and slip it into our stack from the Inch Deck that cost $1.25.

There's no way we were the first or last to do it, but I felt kinda shitty about it for years after.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 days ago (2 children)

I found a porno mag my sisters boyfriend had

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 days ago

Did it have 70s bush?

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 days ago (2 children)
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[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 days ago

Gum. I was maybe 7 yo. My mother took me back to the store and made me apologize.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 days ago

I saw a grey snubnose pistol toy somebody left lying around at a rental shop when I was like... 5? It was exactly like the one I had, but mine was green and I wanted the realistic grey. Felt so bad about it once I got home that I hid it and never touched it, and then it eventually went missing.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 days ago (2 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 days ago (1 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 days ago

lol, glad to hear I'm not the only one - I felt like there was something really wrong with me 😅

[–] [email protected] 9 points 4 days ago (1 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 days ago (4 children)

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.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 days ago (1 children)

I remember stealing small toys from dentists and pediatricians when I was little. Like, you were allowed to pick one toy after the appointment and I took two or something?

Unfortunately, I've also stolen from friends of mine. I was around 7 or 8 and wanted a Tamagotchi real bad but couldn't afford one because I didn't have/get any allowance and my parents couldn't just buy me one since we were tight on money growing up. Ff to us visiting friends and I notice 15€ on my friend's night desk which I just stashed.

Same day, I go to my mother, all proud, and proclaim "Look, I only need another 5€ to get a Tamagotchi!" When she asked where I'd gotten the money from, I confessed, realised what I did was stupid, and apologised to his mother over the phone. I remember crying real bad and promising I'd never do something like that ever again; she was really cool about it and wasn't angry at all which was nice. Felt awful regardless.

I did end up getting a Tamagotchi for my birthday so yay?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 days ago

Kids just do dumb shit sometimes. Nothing to feel bad about. You did the right thing.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 4 days ago (2 children)

Breakroom at my father's office had snack and soda vending machines, and also a change machine. My younger brother and I discovered the change machine was faulty, and would dispense way too much change for a dollar bill. We fed it every single we had (4 or 5 dollars between us) and got back $20 or so in quarters, nickels and dimes. This was in the late 1970s. $20 was a lot of money, especially to a couple of dumb kids. We thought we'd hit the jackpot.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 days ago

Was gonna say maybe they did it on purpose expecting you to dump it all back into the vending machine (which probably way overcharged) but yeah $20 for 5 seems a bit high for that.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 days ago

Oh 20 dollars was a wad back then! Nice find.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 4 days ago (3 children)

I am advocating for shoplifting but the only thing I ever stole was a small packet of seeds from home depot when I was 7

[–] [email protected] 10 points 4 days ago (6 children)

I have no problem with people taking what they need and don't care about big box stores. I'm just not wanting to get in trouble with the mods.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 days ago

Understandable

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 4 days ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 8 points 4 days ago

If Tim Hortons wants their Timbit back they can have it. They've gotten so gross.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 days ago

I’m told it was mother’s heart.

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