Have you ever stolen anything???(Light hearted)

I used to 'collect' stuff. when my children were in the buggy - always made a point of checking before we left the shops.

My mum and I in Woolies 1970's Saturday afternoon shopping City centre busy time.
Easter eggs piled up on stands in the middle of the shop
Mum had an Umbrella laying over her shopping bag, it had a hook handle.
Wandering through the store just looking, we walked out, crossed the road to a Boutique I wanted to look around.

We strolled around the shop, took our time. As we were leaving Mum then swoped her bag onto the other arm, to find the biggest Easter Egg hanging from the handle.
She screamed, threw it at me like it was a bomb, laughing. I threw it back to her equally falling about laughting.
We could never understand why no one said, do you know you have a large Easter Egg dangling from your Umbrella..
We kept it.

When I was 5, I remember sneaking and eating a mars bar in the supermarket, one bite at a time. Putting it back on the shelf inbetween bites. Mum didn't notice and I guess it was before in-store security.

When I was 15, I went try-on shopping with a friend. She tried a top on and put her own top over the top and walked out. I would have loved to be brave enough to do it, but was too scared.

My husband, who is in his mid seventies, found an orchard on a walk last year, and couldn’t resist a little scrumping.

I didn’t know whether to be mortified about the stealing, or proud that he’s still fit enough to very quickly climb trees.

Grandmabatty

farview I have a similar story. Wandered through Debenhams with ds in a buggy. Left and headed to another shop to find ds chewing on a bottle of Chanel No. 5 which he had swiped without me seeing. I returned and offered abject apologies.

I did something very similar in M&S many years ago.
They had the bras on a counter and I looked through them and then walked on all around the shop pushing dd who would have been about two in her buggy.
It was only when I got to the doors and checked she had her hat on that I realised she had reached up and got a bra in each hand and had pulled them all around the shop. I turned to go back to the counter. A very nice assistant came up to me and said they had been wondering when I would notice, they had been laughing at her trying to fasten the hooks and eyes.
I still think what if I had gotten out of the shop?

Only inadvertently. Pushed baby Gdd1 to the nearest small supermarket, just for a few things inc. their bloody fussy cat’s food. Took just a wire basket.

Picked up the cat food, added last bits, went to checkout.
Very weird, I could have sworn I’d picked up two packs of the cat food, but had only one.
Oh, well. Paid, carried on to dd’s house, by which time it was just starting to rain.

Pulled the pram hood over Gdd1 just before reaching the front door - eeek! Realised that I’d put 2nd pack of expensive cat food on the pram hood - basket evidently full by then - and it had fallen down between the folds, completely hiding it.

If it hadn’t started raining heavily I’d have gone back, but I didn’t. Still feel bad about that, and shudder to think how easily I could have been done for shoplifting. Nobody would have believed that it was a genuine mistake.

About 10 years old, I pinched a postcard while on holiday. No idea why. My dad noticed and gave me a massive bollocking.

I once drove off after filling the car up with petrol. Realised after about 5mins and went back.

Apples, rhubarb, cocoa powder and sugar , from gardens, orchards and parents, apple and rhubarb scrumping, dipping
the stolen fruit into cocoa powder and sugar , delicious but naughty,

And a cat, my elder daughter saw a man kicking his cat around his garden, she took the cat and I took the cat to a rescue centre, my daughter was 7 at that time.

This is a different "theft" but still feel guilty.
Just before the pandemic I ordered some sandals online. Unfortunately I became ill and spent time in hospital. Whilst in hospital my sandals were delivered and my neighbour took them in as I live alone. When I came out of hospital she forgot to give them to me and I phoned the company who sent out another pair thinking they had been lost in the post.
Weeks went by and my neighbour came round apologetically with the sandals saying she had forgotten them.
I phoned the company and after a long explanation the lovely lady on the phone just said " keep them love you sound as though you have had a rough time ! "
So now have 2 pairs of nice sandals . Maybe not theft but feel guilty still !

As a young child I stole a single hazelnut off a shop display counter. I felt so guilty I never ate it and have worried about it for the following 70 years!

Yes sort of but not intentionally. A few weeks ago I was shopping and had to use the self service as there was only one person on a check out with a ridiculously long queue.

I put all my items through and left and then wondered why I hadn't got a receipt. I hadn't paid. No idea how that happened as I used my card or so I thought.

No payment went through.

No never, but my DD when around 4 decided to help herself to the pick n mix in woolies which was easily within her reach, as I turned round there she was with a milk bottle in her mouth and two shrimps in her hand

I was driving through a street in London and saw my dog trotting along the pavement on her own. Thinking she had escaped from the house, I bundled her up into the boot of the car to take her home. Except it wasn't my dog. The owner came round the corner just as I closed the boot! So embarrassing!
Dogknapping!

Only food when I was very young, broke and hungry

My DC obviously wasn't well-trained - all she stole was a tube of Smarties! I didn't realise until we got home and wasn't going to walk all the way back because they shouldn't have had them at pushchair level at the till.

farview I have a similar story. Wandered through Debenhams with ds in a buggy. Left and headed to another shop to find ds chewing on a bottle of Chanel No. 5 which he had swiped without me seeing. I returned and offered abject apologies.

49 years ago I had been shoe shopping..had my 1yr old son in pushchair and was also heavily pregnant...when I got to the bus stop and went to the front of the pushchair....my son was chewing on a mans shoe that he'd obviously taken off a shoe rack unbeknown to me....so I went back to the shop feeling embarrassed...but they thought it was hilarious..

I also left a shop with things I hadn't paid for. I was in Superdrug looking at face creams and suddenly remembered I had to pick something up. Charged off through the shopping centre, basket on my arm full of things from Superdrug. Half way there realised I was carrying an extra basket so did a quick U turn and raced back, expecting to be stopped by security men all the way. Felt so guilty I walked round putting everything back on the correct shelf before running out again.

I inadvertently forgot to pay for a large packet of toilet rolls because they were hanging on to my trolley. I noticed them when I got to the car and was unloading the shopping into my boot. I took them back and apologised.

Oh gosh, I do remember wheeling a supermarket trolley out to the car not realising I had a “giant” box of Persil under the trolley which I had forgotten all about in the checkout queue. Needless to say I rushed it back in, full of apologies. The screaming toddler in the baby seat on the trolley was accepted as a reasonable excuse for my distraction.

No never- it would not enter my head. I do double-check my supermarket trolley in case I leave something in it inadvertently.

Walked out of department store with tea towels in my hand, I had a 3 month old baby and wasnt really with it for most of the time. I took them back and felt ridiculously nervous smuggling them back through the entrance.