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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think Mumsnetters are an extraordinarily law abiding lot

59 replies

Houseofmirth66 · 29/08/2021 20:17

Just read another thread where OP was concerned she was about to be busted by the cops for opening a letter addressed to her actual house and came up with a list of things I’ve done I could actually have been arrested for. I’m not proud of them but I was a shoplifter as a teenager, have driven drunk (would never do it now) jumped into an idling lorry with a friend and drove it, committed a minor fraud…There were others but I am an extremely upstanding law abiding type in middle age and don’t think of myself as a wrong ‘un. Am I being unreasonable to assume that even mumsnetters must have had some brushes with criminality in their youth?

OP posts:
honeyytoast · 29/08/2021 20:20

Drink driving is probably the one thing I really really can’t understand but apart from that I know what you mean.

Especially when it comes to ‘stealing’, whether that be train journeys or free condiments 😂

Fernando072020 · 29/08/2021 20:24

I'm pretty sure lots of us have done SOMETHING. I used to steal the pick n mix sweeties, one or two on n my pocket.

And I used my friends birthday certificate to get into clubs when I was 17 (she was a year older) and this was the year before photo Id became compulsory!

I travelled for two weeks without a train ticket to work because I was doing a year abroad and was poor so didn't want to buy the month pass for two weeks (as I was going home for Christmas!) That was horrible though...looking over my shoulder every journey. I'd never do it again.

I can't think of anything else!

Fernando072020 · 29/08/2021 20:25

Friend's birth certificate*

Birthday certificate 🙄😆

scarpa · 30/08/2021 13:23

YANBU. Surely everyone has done something a bit illegal at some point?

Shoplifting as a teenager, going into clubs underage, illegally driving my friend's car round his estate at 16, nicking anything not nailed down in hotels, drinking underage, definitely speeding (you drive the completely empty M62 at 2am and tell me you're not doing 80mph), drug use (although I guess technically using drugs isn't illegal, just possessing them - so any teenagers with a £10 bag of weed, even if they're unlikely to ever actually get in trouble for it)...

Not saying I'm proud of any of them, but I don't think I know anyone who hasn't done anything illegal ever in their life. Speeding, drugs and underage drinking would cover 99.9% of the people I know!

kurtney · 30/08/2021 13:43

YANBU. No one on MN ever drives above the speed limit, has ever done drugs and finding something in your shopping that you didn't pay for through no fault of your own is STEALING.

Drinking 4 bottles of wine a night is no biggie and absolutely fine though, because it's not against the law.

TheQueef · 30/08/2021 13:46

I'm worse the older I get!
I often muse that a six month prison sentence would be a lovely holiday, I should start a list of crimes to do.
But that would just be another to do list Sad

OhGiveUp · 30/08/2021 13:50

They're not the paragons of virtue that they make themselves out to be, no.

Soubriquet · 30/08/2021 13:51

I still remember picking up an entire tray of cans of sprite and putting them in the trolley

Got to the till and instead of unloading these 30 cans, I gave him the one and told him there was x amount in the trolley.

There was other stuff to, so we paid and was surprised it was so cheap

Got outside and looked at the receipt to see he hadn’t charged us for the sprite.

Didn’t bother going back in

LochinverSwimmingPool · 30/08/2021 13:53

Drinking 4 bottles of wine a night is no biggie and absolutely fine though, because it's not against the law

See also - Allowing Tradespeople To Use Your Lavatory (which is also not against the law, but MNetters are not keen to do this, for some reason.

Aroundtheworldin80moves · 30/08/2021 13:57

I'm sure a lot of people who would never even think of driving home from a pub, have jumped in their car the next day without even thinking.

kurtney · 30/08/2021 14:00

@Soubriquet

I still remember picking up an entire tray of cans of sprite and putting them in the trolley

Got to the till and instead of unloading these 30 cans, I gave him the one and told him there was x amount in the trolley.

There was other stuff to, so we paid and was surprised it was so cheap

Got outside and looked at the receipt to see he hadn’t charged us for the sprite.

Didn’t bother going back in

You mean you didn't phone 999 the minute you found out and hand yourself in? Or at least wear a hair shirt for the next 6 months with a giant 'T' for thief branded on your forehead?

I am shook. Hand your Mumsnet scarf in at the door on your way out please 😉

QueenBee52 · 30/08/2021 14:01

Ive never done drugs 😳

TheQueef · 30/08/2021 14:02

@QueenBee52

Ive never done drugs 😳
Wanna pop round?
BeyondMyWits · 30/08/2021 14:04

I don't think I had any brushes with criminality in my youth... but...

I was raised on a remote Scottish island (pop 120), do not drive and do not drink... so I'd have to have tried really, really hard to break the law.Blush

Tal45 · 30/08/2021 14:06

I think I'm pretty law abiding, I remember walking out of Woolies with a magazine once, got to the other side of the road, realised what I'd done and went back in and paid for it. I've never done drugs, don't drive so don't speed. I did drink underage though - and had the best time doing it!!

2bazookas · 30/08/2021 14:07

When I was 7, I stole a highly desirable new rubber from Christine Binks who sat at the next desk to mine.

Christine cried and Miss asked us all if we'd seen the distinctive missing rubber, brand new.

In a cold sweat, I realised, I would never be able to use the stolen goods, and that being caught in possession would be a dead giveaway. So I hid the rubber in the pocket of my Chilprufe wool knickers and at play time I got rid of the evidence.

Crime doesn't pay.

Christine Binks if you're reading this, I'm sorry.

SolitaryTree · 30/08/2021 14:11

I’m very much a law abiding citizen now but my teens…. A whole other story!
I’d be mortified if my own children found out.
Although saying that, last week I bought some plant pots for the garden, gave the lady one and told her I had 8 of the same…. She only scanned for one and I didn’t say anything, oh and also a big one…. I got a free laptop a while back! Ordered online, was delivered to me the next day, Amazon marked it as not delivered and refunded the money!

banisher · 30/08/2021 14:11

I'm one of the boring ones TBH, but even I've accidentally speeded in the past. Probably done other things I can't remember too.

I worry about people who can't admit to making mistakes or fucking up - everyone does, it doesn't make you a bad person.

Having said that, it always amazes me how other people seem to live in different worlds. DH and I have often said we'd have no idea how to get drugs - wouldn't know where to start or who to ask - but everyone else seems to!

Cattenberg · 30/08/2021 14:14

I remember a thread from a few years ago about a woman who threw a sickie from work for one day, because there was something she really wanted to do but couldn’t get the time off.

MNers were outraged. Apparently, she was not only a criminal, she was making her colleagues’ lives a misery. I was a bit surprised by the level of anger. Not that I have ever committed this heinous offence, of course. Halo

Topseyt · 30/08/2021 14:20

I have never done drugs and never will.

I can't say I am a perfect driver who has never found myself even slightly above the speed limit, although I am a conservative (small c) and defensive one, so not aggressive.

I haven't been perfect with the ridiculous Covid restrictions either, and I am sure there would be plenty on here who would have had me imprisoned for my lawless behaviour. Like sitting on park benches eating my sandwiches and crisps, with not a soul anywhere near me. For removing my mask when on an empty station platform or when I was the only passenger in an otherwise deserted train carriage.

Cattenberg · 30/08/2021 14:20

@2bazookas

When I was 7, I stole a highly desirable new rubber from Christine Binks who sat at the next desk to mine.

Christine cried and Miss asked us all if we'd seen the distinctive missing rubber, brand new.

In a cold sweat, I realised, I would never be able to use the stolen goods, and that being caught in possession would be a dead giveaway. So I hid the rubber in the pocket of my Chilprufe wool knickers and at play time I got rid of the evidence.

Crime doesn't pay.

Christine Binks if you're reading this, I'm sorry.

The girl sitting next to me at infant school had a lime scented rubber. It smelled so delicious, that one day when her back was turned, I tried to eat it. Needless to say, it tasted awful so I spat it back into her pencil case. Sorry, Clare.
ZednotZee · 30/08/2021 14:21

I think MN is largely comprised of middle class conformists, yes.

Soubriquet · 30/08/2021 14:31
FreeBritnee · 30/08/2021 14:35

I stole an ink eraser once from WHSmith. Then the police came to our school and my friend wanted to tell them what I’d done. Never have I been so terrified!!!

Aroundtheworldin80moves · 30/08/2021 14:40

Oh yes. I had a total of SEVEN people in my home a few times last year. Including two under 10s and a teenager.

I am truly a bad person.