A Little Bit of Larceny

Thought for the Day

I know we are not all the same but there is a tendency amongst us humans to lean toward negative behavior once in a while. There’s a little larceny in all of us. I know most of you have never told a lie. I am sorry to say I have. I even shoplifted a box of candy once. Is that a story!

I was somewhere in the grammar school phase of my life, fifth or sixth grade. Funny part of this is I had always been scrupulously honest, but for some reason I felt the need to have a go at shoplifting. I was with some friends. We had taken the bus and gone downtown in Saginaw on a Saturday. After cruising through the downtown to see if any of our school friends were wasting their Saturday there too, we headed for Cunningham’s Drug Store.

Cunningham’s was a drug store in the traditional sense. It had a lunch counter, pharmacy, magazines, books, toys and so on. There was also a variety of candies on racks and racks of shelving. It came over me like a rush of cold air. I wanted to shoplift something. It wasn’t about getting something I couldn’t afford. It was about getting something without paying for it and getting away with it. That forest of candy trees in full bloom became my target.

My primary objective was getting away with the lift. That was so much the focus that after a quick scan of the target area, I moved into position and blindly reached out for the grab, stuffed it in my pocket and was set to move off when a voice over the public address system described me as a thief and sent security to strong arm me into submission.

You know that feeling you get after you do something wrong and stupid and get caught at it? Awful, isn’t it? There I was, caught red handed. The security officer told me to give it up. I reached in my pocket, quivering and handed him a small box of “Good and Plenty”.

For those of you who are not familiar with that brand of candy, it is made up of small pieces of licorice covered with a hard shell candy coating, colored white and pink. Each piece is about three quarters of an inch long and the circumference is not unlike a fat night crawler. I never bought that kind of candy and would give it away if I got it during the Halloween season. Now I was busted for stealing it.

I had not seen an open mezzanine area where a lookout could see everything going on at street level. After the humiliation of being collared in front of all those people I was taken to the store manager’s office. Then the confrontation began. I was convinced there would be jail time or a stay at the juvenile detention farm. I began to imagine ragged clothes, barking dogs, sledge hammers, railroad tracks and making a break for it. And this was even before “Cool Hand Luke” had even been thought of.

But, it was going to be worse than that. They called my parents. And, my parents were not going to be on my side. Now was when I needed to make a break for it.

You know what the worst part of this whole deal was, the stupid box of “Good and Plenty”. Not only did I get caught and grounded, I did it for something I didn’t even like. But, here is the good part. I have twelve grandchildren. They have done a variety of things that could be categorized as, well let’s just say, “poor choices”. And, I get it. I get doing things that are, on later examination, “poor choices”.  That does not define them as a person any more than stealing that box of Good and Plenty defines me.

I hope I have learned enough to know better than to steal peanut brittle with all of these bridges and crowns in my mouth.

©Herb Ratliff, October 1, 2012, All Rights Reserved