Theft

Back when I was a kid the idea of stealing was drilled into me as 'wrong', that if you stole you'd piss off God and you'd have to repent. I remember as a 8 year old boy I went to the shops and bought some half penny sweets, but instead of using real money I used a plastic half penny. I'm sure the shop keeper would have noticed but she never said anything and I got myself a sweety. Thing was I felt guilty and never stole from a shop again.

As I grew older my interests changed from sweets to Transformers (I'm talking proper Transformers not the cheap plastic shite we have today). I was having my haircut at a friend's house (his Mum was a hairdresser), when she'd done I was usually bustled into the living room whilst the grown ups chatted about something and nout. In that living room was a box of toys and I loved rooting through it. One haircut day I came upon a Rocklord, a form of Transformer but not a true one but man it was COOL!. I thought about it and played with it, then I put it into my pocket and went home... For years I felt guilty about that, stealing from people who trusted me, from a friend specifically - this is where I believe I could have gone either way. I could have gone down the path of theft or as I have done, gone down the straight and narrow - I haven't stolen anything since. Some of us will likely have had a similar point in our lives, the time we first steal and it's interesting to see which way we go in terms of 'to steal' or 'not to steal'. Seems to be an intergral crossroad which many of us have or will face at some point.

It now seems society is pretty much leaning towards 'to steal' aspect of things, much more than we have ever done. I work for a small charity shop, have done for around 2 years now and it's somewhat disturbing to see people who'd you'd expect not to be thieves to actually steal. The current recession, which in my eyes is a fabricated event, has seen more and more people resorting to theft in order to support their dwindling lifestyle; yet I can't help but wonder what happen to the 'we'll make do' attitude of the 40s and 50s. People want for more than they have ever done. I was brought up on second hand toys at Christmas, but I never complained; I was just glad I had a loving home. Now some kids want everything, they want everything on TV and if they can't have it they will steal it, the same goes for some adults. It's a disturbing change in trend and it seems a lot of these thieves will go to any length to get what they want.

Recently people have been stealing from the charity company I work for, and thefts have risen sharply from other charity shops too. We have people who steal jackets priced at £2.00, people stealing CDs priced at 20p and some bringing their child pushchairs in with no kid, only to steal things. At one time I could point the finger at the type of person doing this, it was usually the drug ridden, alcoholic who needed to fund his/her addiction, or the scrot/chav types who steal to prove they're tough enough, and sadly some of the Eastern Europeans, who I found out run gangs to do such thefts in our area. Now I'm watching everyone with suspicion, from the single mum with her pushchair to the old gentleman with a shopping bag.

Charities are now prime targets for shoplifters, even more so than usual. It's time we were protected better. More police on the streets, more equipment available to help the smaller charities who can't afford the fancy electronic tag devices.

Have some links:

http://www.thisislancashire.co.uk/news/756890.man_arrested_at_charity_shop_crime_crackdown/

http://www.pcsotoday.co.uk/news/detail.html?id=20473