Ever Stolen Something by Accident?

[Ivan Seeking]

Have you ever stolen something when you didn't mean to? I was just reminded of a library book that I once kept without realizing it. It got packed when we moved and I only realized what had happened several years later.

Aside from a quarter that I stole from my sister at about age ten, I believe the only other thing I've stolen was a cube of butter. It was the strangest thing. I had been working an ungodly number of hours.., perhaps thirty hours or more straight, and was on my way home from a job at about 11 PM or so, with an ~ 8 AM flight to Peru the next morning. On the way home, I stopped for a cube of butter. I walked into a 7-11, took the butter, and walked out. It didn't even dawn on me until I was a mile or two down the road what I had just done! Imagine if someone had noticed and I had been caught on camera; getting busted for stealing a cube of butter. As near as I can remember, there were a few people in the store at the time and no one noticed me coming or going. What really struck me as being strange was how easy it was.

 

[Pengwuino]

That I didn't mean to? No.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

That I didn't mean to? No.

Okay, that you meant to as well.

And don't tell me, fish.

 

[Pengwuino]

Mainly.

 

[Pythagorean]

Software and music. Intentional.

 

[Galron]

It just goes to show we have no free will. :tongue:

You were hungry and you needed fat or carbohydrates after a long day, it's no mystery.

It's also no mystery that night shift workers are more prone to diabetes.
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/03/nightshift/

Night Shift Makes Metabolism Go Haywire

Nightshift

By closely monitoring people with disrupted sleep patterns, researchers have documented the metabolic disarray produced by working at night and sleeping during the day.

As soon as their circadian rhythms became separated from a day-night cycle, test subjects’ levels of key metabolic hormones went haywire — the most compelling evidence yet that shift work isn’t just an inconvenience, but an occupational hazard.

"Normally, the body clock prepares the body for certain activities at a certain time of day," said study co-author Frank Scheer, a Harvard Medical School neuroscientist. "But when it’s out of synchronization, it doesn’t prepare it properly."

For years, scientists have known that people who work night shifts — about 15 million people in the United States — are unusually prone to heart disease, bone fractures, cancer, diabetes and obesity.

The patterns were initially explained as a function of poor nutrition and low exercise, but night workers don’t necessarily live less healthy lives than their day shift counterparts. Risks remained high even when lifestyle was removed from the equation.

That left hypotheses about links between biological clocks and metabolic hormone regulation. Studies on animals suggest a connection, but relatively little research has been conducted on people engaged in shift work.

The latest findings, published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, chart a clear path from work-sleep cycles to metabolic disregulation to disease.

I stole a book from a shop at age 18 once because I was bored.

 

[ThomasT]

Have you ever stolen something when you didn't mean to?

Well, if you didn't mean to, then it isn't stealing. Is it?

 

[Galron]

Well, if you didn't mean to, then it isn't stealing. Is it?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kleptomania" ?

Kleptomania (from Greek: κλέπτειν, kleptein, "to steal", and μανία, "mania") is an irresistible urge to steal items of trivial value. People with this disorder are compelled to steal things, generally, but not limited to, objects of little or no significant value, such as pens, paper clips, paper and tape. Some kleptomaniacs may not even be aware that they have committed the theft.

 

[chiro]

Many a digital thing.

 

[Galron]

Many a digital thing.

Ima steal that.

 

[TheStatutoryApe]

Basically the same thing happened to me. I was tired and kind of out of it being off my sleep cycle. I walked into the store with a friend and we were talking. I grabbed the drink I walked in for and then walked straight out of the store without thinking about it. My friend waited until we were in the car and had left to tell me what I had done. Funny thing is that I remember the cashier being right there at the counter as we walked out, I may have even made eye contact and said hi.

 

[turbo]

I hope that a couple of friends of mine (and I truly don't know which ones) return my copies of "Be Here Now" and "Chaos" that I allowed them to check out of my home library. I used to be pretty free about loaning books. Now, I'm a bit more cautious.

 

[Borek]

There are things about me that you don't want to know.

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

I stole a kiss. But then I gave it back so I guess it doesn't count.

 

[lisab]

I used to think Auto Trader magazines were free - I know I picked up at least one before I learned they were not.

 

[wolram]

I steal looks from girls, but alas i never keep them

 

[physics girl phd]

I accidentally stole a shaving razor last fall. I was loading up the kids in the car, and discovered it hadn't made it out of the cart onto the checkout area (I was buying new comforters and blankets for the winter, and those weren't lifted out, but rather scanned while they were lined up in the cart.. and the razor slipped under them).

For those of you that don't know about the family, we have a toddler, an ADHD middle-schooler, and a special needs high-schooler (who uses a wheelchair). Note: I was coordinating all three at the time by myself (as is often the case). When you've loaded them and their new bedding in the car, and then find something that small (after spending a LOT on bedding), what is one to do? I thought about leaving it in the cart, but then someone else probably would have just taken it. In addition, I had no cash on me (to send the middle-schooler to go back and check it out on his own), and I REALLY wanted to be able to shave my legs and armpits the next morrning with something other than a 2-month-old razor (sorry -- maybe that's TMI).

I like to be a good example to the kids... but I was the only one who noticed (they were all loaded back in the car as I was loading up the stuff). So oops. No one knows but me... and now the PF forum.Other than that, I think most of my thievery has been on purpose and known to me at the time. A single yogurt raisin (given to me in the grocery by my older sister when we were kids). Hmmm... I thought there was one other thing, but I can't remember it.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

I used to think Auto Trader magazines were free - I know I picked up at least one before I learned they were not.

Okaaaaay, so it appears that I may have also stolen a few Auto Trader magazines. :uhh:

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

I tried stealing a box of paper clips when I was maybe 5-6. Got caught. Felt awful!

 

[Jack21222]

When I was about 11, I accidentally stole the monthly payment for my karate lessons.

My mother handed me the money, but I forgot to take it with me, and forgot about the payment altogether. A couple weeks later, the instructor asked if I had paid. I couldn't remember, but I had paid every month, so I assumed I had. I couldn't produce a receipt, but the instructor just told me to not worry about it. A day or two later, I found some money in the amount of the missed payment in my room.

Since the instructor said not to worry about it, and since I was 11 and didn't know better, I kept the money.

 

[Evo]

I found a stick of chap stick in the bottom of my shopping basket when I was emptying it into my car. I realized that I hadn't paid for it because I didn't see it. I went back into the store to pay for it and the cashier looked at me like I was crazy.

Another time at a self check out lane I noticed that there were several dollar bills left in the change dispenser. Apparently the last shopper to use cash forgot about it. So I took the money and gave it to the employee overseeing the counters, and they didn't know how to respond. I told them to hold it their station incase the person returned for it. Or give it to their lost and found department.

OY. Such a shame when a random act of honesty confuses people.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

It just goes to show we have no free will. :tongue:

You were hungry and you needed fat or carbohydrates after a long day, it's no mystery.

You know, that's an interesting point. I had never thought about it that way. At first my thought was that I was acting deliberately, but when I remembered what happened next, I can't be so sure. About ten minutes later I was leaving the city limits and nearing my home when I saw flashing red lights in my mirror. I looked at my speedometer and saw that I was doing about 70 mph in a 50 zone. CRUD! [Apparently I wasn't worried about the butter anymore. ]. I was so tired and desperate to hit the bed that I just didn't realize how fast I was going. The cop soon informed me that I had been doing 70 mph all the way through town [35 and 40 zones] with him right on my tail! In effect, I was only semi-conscious of what I was doing. I had hit the wall. When I explained the situation, he let me off the hook and escorted me home.

 

[turbo]

I found a stick of chap stick in the bottom of my shopping basket when I was emptying it into my car. I realized that I hadn't paid for it because I didn't see it. I went back into the store to pay for it and the cashier looked at me like I was crazy.

Another time at a self check out lane I noticed that there were several dollar bills left in the change dispenser. Apparently the last shopper to use cash forgot about it. So I took the money and gave it to the employee overseeing the counters, and they didn't know how to respond. I told them to hold it their station incase the person returned for it. Or give it to their lost and found department.

OY. Such a shame when a random act of honesty confuses people.

Check-out people are clueless, often, too. When your cash drawer comes up a few bucks short or a few bucks heavy, supervisers will take little notice, but when a pattern occurs... The employee should have tucked that few bucks under the cash insert in the drawer with a little note "customer left their change" or some such.

 

[Evo]

What I hate is the women that pick up a cluster of grapes weighing a pound or two and handing them to their annoying kids to keep them quiet, by the time they get to the checkout, there is nothing left but a stem, which she then hands to the cashier and asks them to throw it away. Ok, so your kids just ate $8 of food without paying for it. I see this ALL OF THE TIME. It's like they don't even think of it as stealing.

One time there was a kid standing at the salad bar bar grabbing and eating handfulls of meat with her bare hands. I told the child she was stealing and to stop. The mother was enraged, saying that the store expected shoppers to *sample* things. I told the women I watched her little behemoth down over a pound of meat before I stopped them, that's no sample, and another woman chimed into say she was absolutely disgusted that this kid was allowed to put their hands in their mouth then rumage through the meat over and over. These must be the same people that urinate all over public toilets. This child was 11-12 years old, not a toddler that didn't know better.

<bangs head on desk and apologizies for rant>

 

[turbo]

When I was the IT guy for an ophthalmology practice, the GM wanted me to accompany him to a trip to Sam's Club. He wanted to go during what would have been my lunch break, but I humored him and went along. The reason that he wanted to go at mid-day is that's when the Sam's Club staff was handing out samples of all their deli concoctions and prepared, microwavable foods. He hit every station and gobbled up what I thought were embarrassing quantities of "samples". I mentioned that to my cousin who worked in the billing department, and she told me that it was common knowledge around the office. The GM would routinely make noon-time forays to Sam's to "pick up supplies" just so he could eat on the cheap. What a jerk.

 

[Dembadon]

What I hate is the women that pick up a cluster of grapes weighing a pound or two and handing them to their annoying kids to keep them quiet, by the time they get to the checkout, there is nothing left but a stem, which she then hands to the cashier and asks them to throw it away. Ok, so your kids just ate $8 of food without paying for it. I see this ALL OF THE TIME. It's like they don't even think of it as stealing.

One time there was a kid standing at the salad bar bar grabbing and eating handfulls of meat with her bare hands. I told the child she was stealing and to stop. The mother was enraged, saying that the store expected shoppers to *sample* things. I told the women I watched her little behemoth down over a pound of meat before I stopped them, that's no sample, and another woman chimed into say she was absolutely disgusted that this kid was allowed to put their hands in their mouth then rumage through the meat over and over. These must be the same people that urinate all over public toilets. This child was 11-12 years old, not a toddler that didn't know better.

<bangs head on desk and apologizies for rant>

I know it's rude to laugh at someone when they're frustrated, but sorry, this is the funniest friggen thing I've read in months.

Still struggling to suppress the intense desire to laugh out loud at work...