Im a retired shoplifter AMA

[WorkingGirlJem]

That's it really. Have been a shoplifter for approx 10 years, and have recently decided to stop.
I'm not proud of myself, am fully expecting to get flamed, but and am hoping getting this out there will help with my resolve to stop permanently.
AMA

Whitney168 If anyone in receipt of a gift asked for the receipt to exchange I would just offer to exchange it for them. Then steal whatever it was they wanted.

Bungalow I really cannot tell you that on an open forum

Cherrybathbomb I'm actually happy to be flamed and be on the receiving end of other posters anger and disgust.
Part of the reason I started this thread was to see in black and white what a truly awful human being I had become.
Seeing it all written down is like a type of closure.

@ShirleyPhallus understand op's post correctly. She isnt a thief anymore!

Jeeez im over myself. Lol.

Were you thieving from the inside? ie your job.

To be honest, OP, and again not meant in aggression, I do wonder if you were as in control as you seem to think. Addicts often have the misguided sense that they have control when they really don't.

Bungalow no pram, no. But you are thinking along the right lines (sort of) as I doubt I could even carry a microwave!
Shoplifting comes in more forms than the obvious.

10 year addiction will be hard to break, I'd seek some addiction recovery/therapy.

Maybe stick to online shopping?

Bungalow no, not from my job.

Bishop I'm no psychologist so I cannot exactly say. However I must have had a degree of control as I made a decision to stop and have not been tempted to do so since. I suddenly feel terrified of being caught, although nothing happened to trigger that feeling.

My oldest friend keeps stealing things from big supermarkets by messing around somehow with the self checkouts. she recently told me she'd taken a lot of expensive things to include in her Christmas dinner. She says she does it because she can't afford to buy the items but I struggle with this because I have always thought if you can't afford something then you can't have it. I'm worried she will get caught and it will mess up her life. Do you have any suggestions of anything I can say to her to make her see what she's doing and stop?

Is the microwave the physically largest item?

Are you quite a confident person? Do your husband/partner/children know?

WorkingGirlJem

Have you ever been/are you a working girl?

Does anyone IRL know?

GummyGoddess
No, the microwave isn't the largest item, neither was it a one off.
Yes, I'm outwardly very confident.
Nobody knows or would ever believe it of me,

Lava
Not sure how much help I can be, except to say that almost all supermarket self checkouts have cctv watching the scanners very closely.
The fact that she hasn't been caught or confronted doesn't mean they haven't clocked her doing it. When they do confront her she may find they have the other evidence to throw at her too. Supermarkets are becoming increasingly savvy with regards to shoplifters.

Working, was part of the fact you stopped due to the impact that it has on the cost of honest shoppers, ie price increases? Or did you never feel guilty about that?

OP, do you think you did this as a way of having a little power and control over your life? Did you achieve a "hit" that was otherwise lacking?

PilingOn yes I was an Escort for about 5 years, many years ago. No drugs or abuse or coercing there either. I did it to fund myself through university. It was easy money and I enjoyed it. I was very fortunate to never have a bad experience.

Mad no, Im ashamed to say the impact on others never came into my mind.

finfinty quite possibly yes, although I don't know what exactly was missing from my life. I have a nice home, good job and a lovely family.

Maybe you have a narcissitic personality OP?
Delusions of grandeur or an over inflated sense of ego?

How will you now pay back into society what you have taken?

Or maybe an anarchist. All property is theft!

How did you steal the items?? Did you just walk out of the shop in your pocket hand arms??

My sister is an addict and steals regularly to fund her habit, she uses a baby pram that faces her and is easily covered, doesn't help the medication she is on makes her looks like she has just had a baby meaning its not as obvious !!

For some reason I Don't judge you as harshly as I do her, luckily she gets caught regularly because shes shit at it I'm guessing.

My best friend, the most wonderful woman i know, was sent to prison for 6 months (she served 3), for stealing enough money to stop her home from being repossessed.
She was caught 'repaying' the money. She was fucking desperate and did it to keep her family housed. And she tried to repay it.
She was made an examle of. Apparantly. Fecking Magistrates at a country court.

So threads like yours really piss me off OP. You have no idea.

Oh, Congratulations! How daring, how sooper.

There. Feel better?

Sorry. I am usually the most 'reasonable' of posters, but fucking bragging about being a thief for the fun of it and getting away scot free is sickening.

My friend, btw, lost her partner, children and home. For £2500 which she paid back.

So whoop to you.

Op. I an glad you have stopped! No crime is victimless!

Penninepain, appreciate women are harshly judged by the courts but your friend had choices too. Many desperate women do not resort to crime.

Are you doing anything to make amends for all the items you took?

Working out the amounts and donating each month to charity or something like?

fortunate to never have a bad experience

Yes very lucky. My friend is a dominatrix, now taking a stalker to court. He threatened to take her.