Shoplifting!!!!

Usually, someone that shoplifts doesn't do it out of any real desire for the merchandise they steal. Instead, they shoplift as a way to get the good feeling that occurs after they have gotten away with the crime. More than 3.5 million people have admitted shoplifting in the past five years, according to new research. What do they take? For some it is an addiction, for others a job or a spur-of-the-moment thing, but hundreds of thousands of Brits do it each year, according to new research. Shoplifting is a crime committed by those in desperate need of a short term cash 'fix'. Be it to pay a loan shark or to feed a drug habit the common denominator is poverty. I will grant you that there are habitual shoplifters who see it as an 'occupation' but ask any of them and I'm sure they would rather have a permanent job with a decent wage. If it's ok to rub poor people's noses in it by displaying expensive goods in every high street shop window then don't be surprised when one or two of them decide that being poor should not be a barrier from the desire to possess such items of their own. These people are as receptive to the same forms of advertising that the rest of us (not so poor) people have to endure but rich or poor has no meaning in the river of dreams and shoplifting is the high street currency of choice. What can be described as 'affordable' for a lot of people in this country cannot be for the very poorest who must be sick of seeing the rest of us trudge home laden with bags every day of the week knowing that for them this is but a dream. We can grind them down only so much before they make a stand. Credit cards, loans, wages in the bank every month, mortgages and holidays may seem normal for everyone of us but it's the stuff that dreams are made of for many of Britains poorest families.

I have to confess... when I was a kid (9 or 10 yrs) I used to regularly nick anything up to 5p (only coppers, mind!) from me mum's purse. Then I'll call in at the village sweet-shop on the way to school, buy a few penny sweets (fruit salads, I think) and 'lift' some few more. Fudge were good; small enough to conceal, yet just enough to give myself a treat! I never got caught, but think I gave up after a couple of close scrapes. I think my Single Most Expensive Item was an ice worth about 30 or 40 pence. I can tell you, I had to work quick on that one, before the damn thing melted in my pocket!!! And was it a gateway to more serious offence? Well 12 years later I once walked out of a crowded WH-Smith and 'forgot' to pay for the magazine I was holding. I'm happy to say however, I've remained clean ever since (15 years).