s l vs dumpster diving

I got addicted to shoplifting while in the military. Its sooo easy to steal food at the commissary it's insane! I got into shoplifting because I was broke at the time, and starving. yes the military feeds you sort of, you still have to pay for your food, and I could not afford it. SO I started stealing.

Well we all know what happens when you realise "Hey! That was easy, and I didn't get caught!" you want to steal again, and again and again.

I spent a long time shoplifting, everything I could fit into my pockets, got braver, and bolder, and one day (christmas eve) I found myself stealing a store bag from an unmanned register at sears. I knew I was being watched you just get that gut feeling, you know, like dang, I just got caught. But I decided to go ahead anyway. I was trying to figure out how to steal bigger items I could not fit in my pockets, and I thought, hey put it in a bag, and pretend like you bought it already! Mistake. I got caught, got arrested, and they found out I was in the military, and well the brown hit the fan so to speak. I did not quit shoplifting, but I sure thought twice after that about it, and cut back the amount, until I couldnt bring myself to do it again.

I had a friend I met in the military that was into the whole hipster gutter punk scene, who got me into dumpster diving. Talk about a much larger return, and you still got the rush of possibly being caught. In fact I have been arrested numerous times for dumpster diving, but never taken to jail. people feel sorry for you when you are "stealing" fromthe trash, as opposed to stealing from the store directly, but to me it was so much better. I could go whenever I wanted. 3am? ok. Noon? ok, whatever. And I could fill my entire car with stuff. i didnt pay for groceries for close to 3 years. DUmpster diving kept me out of the stores, and eventually I got over my urges to shoplift.

What was not cool, and to this day still a problem, is my fear of being profiled in ANY store. Stemming from the fact that I was so contious of it for so long always in fear of being caught, now when I shop with money for real, i ALWAYS feel like I am being watched. I don't know if I will ever get over that, but I just try to tell myself I am not, and be contious of where my hands are. Sometimes I feel like if I walk out of a store without buying something I will get frisked by undercover cops like I was at sears that day. So I buy crap i dont need at times just so i dont have to leave the store empty handed, or I make it a point to show my hands, and say something of a goodbye to the store owners on my way out, and that I was looking for something they didnt sell. Anyone else have this fear?

As a side note, i too felt big box stores were politically ok to shoplift from, after all they account for something like a 15% theft / damage rate of their merch, and claim it on their taxes whether that 15% was actually 15% or more like 5, its written in their books monthly or something. SO I felt I might as well be the one stealing some of that 15% they were writing off anyway. But I tried to avoid stealing from individuals and small local stores, cause it was too close to stealing from a real person which I never felt was right.


any thoughts?

johndoe1974 wrote:What was not cool, and to this day still a problem, is my fear of being profiled in ANY store. Stemming from the fact that I was so contious of it for so long always in fear of being caught, now when I shop with money for real, i ALWAYS feel like I am being watched. I don't know if I will ever get over that, but I just try to tell myself I am not, and be contious of where my hands are. Sometimes I feel like if I walk out of a store without buying something I will get frisked by undercover cops like I was at sears that day. So I buy crap i dont need at times just so i dont have to leave the store empty handed, or I make it a point to show my hands, and say something of a goodbye to the store owners on my way out, and that I was looking for something they didnt sell. Anyone else have this fear?

YES I stopped shoplifting but still to this day get overwhelming anxiety in stores, think I'm being watched, etc. It's a problem.

As for shoplifting from big box stores being more politically ok than small stores, I would agree with that, but I wonder if people mostly tell themselves this in order to justify their selfish desires. I wonder if that's what I was doing. I have little respect for large corporations but I can't help but feel that stealing from them is the wrong way to go about opposing them? Just some thoughts.

Dumpster diving...agh it sucks that anyone would be arrested for that. I don't know. I have so many confused thoughts about the morality of stealing.