Day 90 of 100

“He went thataway!”

I used to collect comics when I was in high school. Loved them. The stories and the illustrations combined to create a world where my imagination could run wild.

In high school, I met a friend, Derek, who was part of a crew that, well, let’s say, figure out ways to acquire things from stores. They knew all the loopholes, and figured out some interesting ways to steal. I mean borrow indefinitely.

Never really good at moderation, I wanted all the comics that I wanted. Affording them was another story. I had a summer job, but saved little money, and my parents certainly weren’t going to buy dozens of comics for me.

“I have a better way,” Derek said.

Over the next few weeks, he showed me how one could buy a small stack of comics, and then go back to “look” at more, and slide them quickly into your stack, doubling and sometimes tripling, the size of the stack.

I got pretty good at it. I was at a Walgreen’s near my house, and I was adding to my stack. I put the larger stack in my bag and made way for the back door. It was locked. As I walked to the front, a man stopped me, and asked me to look in my bag. It was at this moment, I knew I had screwed up.

“These are mine!” I stated as confidently as I could.

“They are not. We have cameras.”

I was sent home and told that they would call my parents that night. As the evening rolled on, every time the phone rang, I jumped. But they never called.

Weeks later, I told my cousin what happened. I needed to tell someone. He then told my aunt, who told my parents.

My parents were shocked. They were certain that this was the beginning of me going down a horrible path and started to explore Tough Love, which was a movement where the parents would kick out the kid until they were scared straight.

Luckily, they never threw me out. And I stopped my thieving ways.

I also have never been back to that Walgreens.