I sometimes feel as though I might be presenting myself in an overly angelic sort of way when I reflect on the lives of those I have known or other people who I believe are living wrong. I don't mean to get up on a high horse because I was no puritan growing up. I did plenty of things wrong and just like a lot of cringe moments that happen as a youth for a lot of people, you reflect on it later with a bit of a "facepalm" reaction.
I was probably around 12 years old or so when they got a pinball machine that I quite enjoyed at the local 7-11 and even though I was working a paper route and cutting lawns at the time, I thought I had discovered a fool-proof method of getting free candy.
It's funny, I remember very little about being 12 years old, but I can recall not just the pinball machine, but also how it worked and the sounds it made. I also remember how many times in the past I got away with my "brilliant shoplifting caper" and then one day the walls closed in and I got busted. Looking back, it was really stupid what I was doing, and I wasn't even getting much stuff out of it either. I also had the money for these things and didn't need to steal them. What are you doing Winona Ryder!?
The first time I stole from this 7-11 it hadn't even been my plan to do so. I went in there to look at the comic books (yes, they sold comic books at 7-11) and one of my regulars was The Punisher and I actually did have an original print of the first episode. 75 cents! Wow, how things have changed. Anyway, that's a story for another day.
I bought the comic book and asked for a couple dollars in quarters to play the pinball, I probably paid with a $5 bill but I don't remember for sure. Back in those days you got a paper bag with your purchase whether you wanted it or not and well, the paper bag of course was a lot larger than the comic book was. I went over to the pinball machine and started playing and a bit later on I went to the cooler to get a Dr. Pepper. I recall the line was busy and the guy behind the counter was backed up so I just said something about being mid-game and can I just pay him for the drink later? He had no problem with this as he was probably only about 8 years older than I was.
Later on, I went up to the counter after I was done playing Bad Cats and he just kind of stared at me like "well, what do you want?"
He was so unattentive towards his job that he had forgotten about the Dr. Pepper and I reminded him and he was like "oh right, sure, 25 cents" or whatever a pop cost back in those days.
It was on my bicycle ride home that it occurred to me that this guy has zero loyalty to the stock in the store and also doesn't really pay attention to what is going on around him.
That 7-11 would cycle out their pinball games every now and then and later on another one, that wasn't as good as Bad Cats but was still pretty good, was standing in it's place next to the window and one aisle from the candy section. So I would stand there playing, I think it was the Adams Family pinball with my comic book in its paper bag, looking like an innocent kid who just enjoys pinball. Only this time, I had criminal intentions. The pinball machine was right against the window and I would be able to see when a bunch of cars were going to get gas at the same time. This is either the late 80's or early 90's so very few people actually paid at the pump. It was a more trustworthy time too so you could just pump away and then go up and pay for it afterwards.
Again, that's another story about how times have changed and I'll maybe remember to get into that later.
The 7-11 looked almost exactly like this but when you walked in the front door the pinball machine was on your right and the pay counter / snack area managed by a single staff member, was on your left.
I would eye up the people getting gas and especially if someone else pulled in to just go to the minimart at the same time and I would plan my move. As soon as a line got built up at he register, which blocked our man's ability to see the candy aisle, I would walk over there, grab some things, then go to the back on my way back around to the pinball machine, and at the end of the aisle I would pop the items into my paper bag. Free candy!
I had become such a regular visitor there that the one dude behind the counter didn't pay much attention to me anyway and he probably didn't even notice that I would leave my game and wander the store when he would get busy because he was likely making minimum wage and his only requirement for employment was to be over 18.
I would ALWAYS stick to my routine of when he did make eye contact with me away from the pinball machine I would talk to him like we are friends and say "I'm gonna get a Dr. Pepper, is that ok?" and he would respond in a kind of snarky way like "of course it's ok, you don't have to ask every time."
By the time I left that store I had paid for a 75 cents comic book, a 25 cents Dr. Pepper, and put a dollar or two into the pinball machine. What he didn't know was that I also had anywhere between 5 and 10 dollars worth of free candy in that same paper bag.
As is often the case with criminals, when they get away with something too many times, they start to get complacent and that is exactly what I did one day when I went in to pull off my candy scam and the 20 year old dude wasn't working. Instead there was a guy who was likely in his late 40's or early 50's behind the counter.
What I should have done is just bought the comic book and left but I dunno, I guess I had a taste for the criminal underworld and decided to press my luck. I used the same tactic thinking I am so clever and nobody is going to suspect a kid playing the pinball machine. After my 2nd trip to the candy aisle during a bit of a "gas rush" the guy behind the counter told me that after this game to come up to the counter, and bring my bag with the comic book in it with me.
It wasn't a question.
Now even though I was a petty criminal at this point, my parents had instilled a great sense of respect for my elders into me and even though the tears had already started to form in my eyes on my last pinball, I knew that I was not going to make a break for the door. I went up to the counter and he emptied my bag and then I made up some lie about how "oh, I was going to ring those up after my games" but this guy could read me. He saw the beginning stages of guilt tears and then he started ringing up all the goods.
Tears in my eyes flowed as I started to realize that I didn't actually have enough money with me to pay for all of this and had to put some of the stuff back.
The guy never got the cops involved, he never lectured me about stealing, didn't even ban me from the store. The lesson was kind of learned there and I have to look back on this guy with a certain level of respect. It turns out that he actually knew who I was and knew my Dad. He never turned me in although someone else did later, but that is another story about my youth criminality when things really came crashing down for me. In a sort of about-as-honest-as-you-can-be-but-still-be-in-the-wrong sort of way.
That I will save for part 2 of this story because I am actually quite enjoying going down memory lane with this one.
I look back on that time and think to myself what an idiot I was. The kid wandering around the inside of a 7-11 but only buys a comic book and a drink over the course of an hour? You don't exactly have to be Sherlock Holmes to figure that something is amiss here.
It wouldn't be the last time I was busted stealing though. It would have been nice if I had been scared straight by this, but nah, just like a gambler who wins every now and then and keeps betting to his own detriments, things actually escalated from there.
