Despite growing
up in an area where drugs and crime were commonplace, looking
back, I’m always surprised by how naïve I was about some of the activities
going on around me.
A friend of mine
once asked me if I was interested in buying some things from one of her
husband’s friends. I can’t recall what they were selling – perhaps clothing,
electronic goods or the like.
Whatever it was,
it sounded like I should at least take a look so I said, ‘Sure’.
My friend then
told me, ‘They’re off the back of a truck. You don’t mind, do you?’
Off the back of a
truck? I wasn’t entirely sure what that meant. Did we have to go to the back of
the truck to buy the stuff? I guess that would be okay. Besides, for the
prices she had mentioned I could hardly be picky about where they were selling them from.
‘Off the back of
a truck?’ I innocently enquired. ‘Yeah, they fell off a truck,’ she said,
laughing.
Wow.
Everything fell off?
We went to some
non-descript house in the suburbs to take a look. Some of the things were brand
new, some used, but all at prices that could hardly be believed.
This was a
veritable goldmine! I’m sure I bought tons of stuff and when I was told they
had another ‘truckload’ coming in next week I made plans to return, which I
indeed did on a number of other occasions.
I don’t know when
the penny dropped that ‘off the back of truck’ actually meant stolen. And when
it did, did I cease my law-breaking ways or continue unperturbed?
Thinking about it
now, I wonder how I could not have known. I was naïve yes, but I had also been
a rather prolific shoplifter myself some years before.
One of my school
friends told me once that it was really easy to steal make-up from the local
supermarket. I wasn’t allowed to own, much less wear make-up at the time, so the only way I
was going to get my hands on some was to steal it.
Which I did.
In large
quantities and on a regular basis.
My crime spree
continued and I began to take more risks. I started to take higher priced items
like expensive clothing and jewellery. I remember going into a department store
wearing a long dress and coming out wearing an entire change of clothing
underneath, including a pair of designer jeans. Most of the
things I stole I couldn’t wear anyway as I had no way of explaining to my Mum
where everything came from.
It was more about
the thrill of getting away with it.
Eventually I
almost got caught. A security guard asked me to empty my pockets as I was
leaving a store. I did have a stolen lip-gloss in one of the pockets but was able to manoeuvre
it so he didn’t see. I went bright red in the face, as most guilty teenagers
are prone to do. He let me leave and I never stole another thing again.
Well at least not until I discovered ‘the back of the truck’ which I guess was stealing by
default.
I promise you I
have spent my adult life as a law-abiding citizen. I was raised in a
conservative home with parents that would have been completely shocked that I
was doing such things.
It just goes to
show that our external environment can greatly influence our actions and
behaviours.
I am just so
grateful now that I was ‘almost caught’ all those years ago.
