Busted and stressed out but life goes on

The bus depot is now truly done. We never got another penny from there. Lol, at least the last thing we did get was a good adrenaline rush.

That leaves the paper office and my first real encounter with the law. Come on, you knew I had to get caught sooner or later. Hell, I'd been stealing and shoplifting since I was 4 or 5. It catches up with you sooner or later.

The last time I hit the paper office for money I did the usual and waited for my opportunity. When it came I took it. Small problem tho. The money bag only had 5 20 dollar bills and a couple of ones and some change.

Yep, I took all of the twenty dollar bills. 100 bucks. I wasn't going to take it all but I'd heard a noise outside and had to hurry up and get the bag back in the drawer so I ended up with the big bills.

Now I didn't know that my friend from the bus depot was going to hit it the same day. He almost got caught and the only thing for him to do was steal the whole bag. That wouldn't have been so bad but the dumb ass threw it away in a gas station on his paper route.

Naturally they noticed the bank bag and called the police. Considering it had the paper office name on it that made it fairly easy to trace to who might have done it. Dumb ass should have buried it, cut it up and tossed it in different places or burned it. But he didn't.

So he got busted for it. Lol, I didn't know that any of this had happened until the cops came to school one day and asked to talk to me. Heh, I knew it was going to be a problem right away, I just didn't know what the problem was going to be.

They took me to the police station and questioned me and I found out what it was about. I found out my friend had ratted me out to save his own ass. Being smarter than my friend I wasn't about to let that happen.

Eventually the cops called my mother to the police station. I didn't have time for her crap, I had to figure out a way to minimize my part and keep anything serious from happening to me.

I did too. I told the cops it had been my friend who showed me how to steal from the paper office, I told them I'd only taken $3.50 that I needed to pay my paper bill. I told them there had been over 100 dollars in the bag when I'd put it back. I also told them it had been my first time.

Funny but they believed all of it. My ex friend who'd ratted me out had been caught with the bag or at least caught dumping he bag so they figured he was lying about how much he got and was trying to blame it all on me. I didn't get stressed out or scared but kept my head and put all the blame on my ex friend.

Lol, my good reputation with adults saved my ass. My good grades at school saved my ass. My working hard at odd jobs saved my ass.

Meanwhile, my ex friend had bad grades and a bad reputation so they didn't believe a word he said. I ended up paying back $3.50 and he ended up paying back over a thousand. Reality is nothing happened to me legally except for getting my fingers slapped lightly by the law.

I got several severe beatings at home over it, I got grounded for life. Lol, like that meant anything to me. The beatings were normal and would have happened anyway, this time they just happened for a different reason. For alcoholics who are gone a minimum of 4 nights per week, grounding me was the least of my worries. It just didn't matter.

Besides, a month or so after I got caught we were going to move anyway so it didn't really affect my life in any way except for learning one lesson. Never, ever have a partner who can't keep his mouth shut. He did make a convenient fall guy tho.

Bottom line is my career in lying, cheating and stealing continued. Just as did the physical, sexual and mental abuse. IOW nothing freaking changed at all. It will change but not for another couple of years.

Surprise, bus depot revisited

While my friend and I were stealing from the paper office we were also checking the bus depot once a month or so. Just watching for an opportunity.

It was starting to get cold out and we were all wearing coats most of the time. The boss had taken his keys and gone out to start his car and let it warm up. Oops, I immediately recognized the opportunity and told my friend to get ready as it was probably gonna happen.

It used to be that people had all their keys along with their car keys and because people who come from a cold climate hate cold cars, they usually don't want to shut them off to run back inside and lock a door that should be safe anyway.

So we played pinball while we waited for the boss to leave. Nothing new and no one was paying any attention to us. Not even the boss. It's kinda like kids our age, as long as we were quiet, were invisible. Horseplay and noise attracted attention, well behaved, didn't. I've never been much for horseplay or noise.

Lol, my stepfather used to bitch all the time because adults would just rave about me. How smart I was, how helpful I was, how hard I worked, what a good job I did and how nice I was. For some reason he could never believe they were talking about me. I'd say that's about normal for a kid. Heh, my mother never believed what other adults said about me, either.

Actually most adults thought I was a nice kid and better behaved than their own kids. If they only knew. With me what you thought you saw wasn't always what you got. They only got to see what I wanted them to see most of the time. That's still how it is. Good old Sun Tzu.

My niceness, my hard work and all the rest of it was the perfect cover. I was still getting straight a pluses at school and teachers loved me too. Everyone except my parents and my sister. Lol, people still think I'm nice, unless we get crosswise with each other than they always say the same thing. 'I thought you were nice but you're not very nice at all.' Perhaps they should have lied, cheated or stole from me.

Anyway, the bosses car finally got warm and he got ready to leave. The big question was would he lock the office door or not. When he finally got ready to go he came out of the office, pulled the door shut and went outside to his car.

When he started to back out my friend hurried and ducked into his office and pulled the door shut. I was supposed to whistle if anyone was coming but I knew it didn't much matter as there was no place to hide in the office.

Much to my surprise about 1 minute later the back door opened and the boss walked in. Lol, took me three tries to whistle but I managed to get it out. He headed straight for the office and I knew we were screwed and probably going to jail.

As I waited for the angry yelling to start in the office I was judging my chances about leaving, whether my friend would rat me out and if I'd go to jail. Adrenaline was working over time. While all this is going through my head I'm also playing he pinball machine like nothing is happening except pinball.

I was scared as hell but nothing was happening in the office, no noise, no yelling, nothing. However the boss had been in there for more than 2 minutes now and I was really getting worried. Finally he came out with his jacket on and walked upfront.

I gave the all clear whistle and in an instant here came my friend. I couldn't figure out how he hadn't been seen and couldn't wait for us to leave so he could tell me about it. He was shaking like a leaf in the wind.

We left and I asked him what the hell had happened. Turns out he'd heard my first whistle and quickly hid himself in the only place available and then had to stay there while the boss worked at his desk for those few minutes.

My friend hadn't gotten caught but he hadn't gotten any money either. The filing cabinet was empty. Bummer. Oh yeah, he pulled the chair out from the desk and hid under the desk in the cubbyhole there and pulled the chair back in. He said he thought he was breathing so loud the guy would hear him or accidentally kick him but it didn't happen.

So we got in got nothing and got out plus got the biggest scare we'd ever had. Lol, I promise, this is the last trip to the bus depot.

Stealing at the paper office, second try.

I'll see if I can stay on track this time. Hopefully this stuff isn't as boring to you as it is to me.

The bus depot was pretty much done so I started concentrating on the paper office. As I stated earlier it was also a game of patience and balls. I'd discovered where the money was and how to get at it.

Opportunities were limited and chances of getting caught at anytime were probably around 50/50. That's what made it interesting. However if caught by another paperboy I could quite probably get out of it with a small lie. If caught by the manager I was going to be in trouble.

It was fairly easy after you knew how to do it tho. Jump over the counter, open the bottom door under the cash drawer. stick your hand up and over the broken drawer side, from underneath. Then pull out the cash bag, take what you needed and then put the bag back.

No trace of anyone doing it. The drawer was still locked and it's likely the manager thought he'd just miscounted the money.

I wasn't near as greedy here as I was at the bus depot and just took what I needed to pay my paper bill. Never more, never less.

After some time I told my bus depot friend about it. Took me some time to learn to keep my mouth shut about things I was doing. Lol, more people get caught for doing things due to their own mouth and need to show off than for any other reason. Just gotta have that recognition to build the ego.

However, ego isn't worth getting caught for. I eventually learned to do things by myself and to keep them to myself. There were a few exceptions to that but not many and still aren't many. Seems simple, you can run your mouth and go to jail or you can shut up and stay free.

Mostly crime is to much work and doesn't pay all that well. Seems to me I read somewhere that the average take what with planning, execution and all the rest was just slightly below the minimum wage if you figured it hourly.

Now to me that payoff isn't worth going to jail for. Never has been and never will be. Holding up some place for 20 bucks to a few hundred while using a weapon just isn't cost effective. IOW the amount of jail time you are going to do for what you get is all out of proportion to the money.

Whatever. Point is it's stupid to rob a convenience store, with a gun, for twenty bucks. Risk vs reward. For all the prison time you are going to do it's going to work out to a couple of bucks a year. Just not worth it.

I knew, as a kid, nothing much was going to happen to me if I did get caught. What? I coulda been sent to reform school? Didn't care and didn't fear it. Why would it matter? Reality is in reform school I'd have had a better life than I had at home.

I see a lot of people like that today. I help the ones I can with rides to put in job applications or job interviews. Others I talk to about life in general. What I don't do is take care of anyone who isn't interested in taking care of themselves.

My girl cousin is worse about taking care of people than I am. She will take them under her wing and flat out take care of them. I won't do that. I will teach them to take care of themselves but if they aren't putting in any effort I'm not going to tolerate it.

It's like the old saying, give a man a fish you feed him for a day, teach him to fish you feed him for a lifetime. She will help anyone even if they aren't trying to help themselves. I won't. She'll take care of them forever, or at least til she gets pissed off about it. That can take years.

We both have the same problem. We both like to help people and help them have better lives. I read a term about us once. Pathological rescuer. It fits. I'm just not willing to help anyone who won't help themselves and she will.

Anyway, stealing from the paper office lasted for a long time. I was never suspected.

From the bus depot to stealing at the paper office

Things finally ended at the bus depot. We checked periodically to see but the office door was always locked. We were both a bit bummed out about it but I had other places so I didn't really care. Besides, we had scored big the last time so I didn't really need the money.

Reality is I worked enough at so many different things I really didn't need to steal to have more money than most kids my age. So what if I got 50 cents for an allowance. I seldom saw it as it almost always got taken away as punishment for some infraction of house rules.

Lol, when you give people an incentive to do something it accomplishes nothing if you take it away every week. I gave all three of my ex's boys an allowance and they got it every week. They did their chores, lol, with some prompting, every week. I never, ever got mad at them for something and used taking away their allowance as punishment.

That struck me as a lot like having a job and then not getting paid because you somehow irritated or pissed off the boss. Ain't many of us going to go to work and do a job and then not get paid for just irritating the boss. I don't know about you but I'm not going back to work there after the first time I don't get paid.

The boys all had defined chores to do and after they discovered I wasn't going to keep their money usually did them fairly well. They learned that you can't just half ass a job and get paid, that you must do it the way it's supposed to be done and to the standards expected.

They could also earn extra money doing other jobs around the house, 2.5 acre yard, my field and the beach in front of the house. An allowance and extra work is a teaching tool. Used properly it can help kids a lot. Take it away all the time, like mine was, and the kids learn nothing except your parents will screw you over too.

If you can't trust the people who are supposed to love, protect and take care of you, to treat you fairly how the hell can you trust anyone else to do it either. Lol, I learned at an early age life isn't fair and I don't expect it to be. However I try to be as fair as I possibly can at all times.

Just because life isn't fair doesn't mean I can't make my little corner of it as fair as I can. I always strive to be fair to everyone. I don't always succeed but at least I try. If you try to make your little slice of life as fair as you can we will all be better off.

I think I mentioned before that I took some parenting classes because I didn't know that much or have much experience raising kids. I learned some interesting things there and one of them was about fairness.

Funny enough that I thought fair meant equal value but the parenting skills instructor told me that was wrong. Jeremy had wanted a bike so I bought him a bike. Then I was looking for something for the other two boys, in the same price range to keep it fair for all.

She explained that to kids that age that money spent wasn't proof of fairness. That if one of them wanted a 10 dollar toy that was going to make him as happy as Jeremy was with his bike then that was all I needed to get for that one. The fact that it was 50 bucks less didn't matter.

Interestingly enough it wasn't the money that made it fair to the boys but the fact that I bought each of them something they wanted very much. With the instructor educating me all 3 boys were happy and thought they had been treated fairly even tho the money I spent on each was very different.

She also explained that because Jeremy had gotten one bike all the other boys expected was one thing. If I'd have bought 6 ten dollar things for the other two Jeremy would have felt he was treated unfairly because they got six things and he only got one.

IOW what I was supposed to be doing was satisfying wants rather than making them all equal moneywise. If I gave each of them something they wanted, no matter how small the cost they would see it as fair.

Lots of bad stuff happened to me when I was a kid and I did lots of dumbass stuff but when I was involved with anyone with children I made damn sure I never did some of the things to them that really irritated me as a kid. Having my allowance unfairly taken away every week was one of them.

Oh well, off to the paper office next time. Got off the topic again.

More stealing at the bus depot

So now we knew that stealing more money was going to be a bigger problem than we thought. Naturally I hatched a plan to get around the problem.

It involved my friend going in and looking in the desk drawers for the key to the filing cabinet. We even went to a store and found one exactly like it so we knew what the key looked like.

Once again it took a few visits to the bus depot to get the opportunity to hit the office without getting caught. The time came and my friend went in and looked all over the place but couldn't find any keys for the filing cabinet.

Bah, life sucked. Somedays that's just the way it goes. We discussed it and several different things we could do but none of them wee really good because they all left traces. Breaking it open wasn't an option, stealing the whole thing wasn't an option. Anything but the key would attract to much attention.

We both figured he was carrying the key around on his key chain but how to get it was the problem. Lol, in retrospect we probably could have stolen the key to the filing cabinets we found that were the same and it probably would have worked but we never thought of that.

He wasn't locking the office door anymore, just pulling it shut so getting in wasn't a problem. we just needed the damn key. Then we got a stroke of luck one day.

His daughter, who was about 2 or so came wandering out of his office one day with a set of keys. She'd seen us around playing the pinball machines enough so she wasn't afraid of us and knew us by sight.

My friend and I could both see the key we wanted on the key chain. Now it was just getting it from her without upsetting her or causing a scene. She came over by us and I picked her up to watch the balls in the machine. She liked to do that and I knew it. Went and got her a chair to stand on.

Soon she was so engrossed in watching the lights, balls and flippers she put the keys down. My friend grabbed them up and she never noticed. So we switched places and I played while he went into the office and opened the file cabinet. That's all he did was unlock it.

We wanted to wait for the boss to leave before we did anything else and we also figured he'd never notice it wasn't locked. He eventually came back and we were both playing the machine with his daughter still standing on the chair watching.

I even had the balls to give him back his keys. Told him she had been playing with them and left them on the floor so I picked them up in case they were important. He thanked me and said she had a bad habit of taking them out of his jacket pocket and playing with them.

Voila, just like that we knew where to look for the keys the next time we were alone there. After he left my friend went in and grabbed a package of 10's and we were in hog heaven. He was amazed at all the money in the cabinet. We left and split the money and I instructed him not to show off with the money.

Always keep a low profile. Always! High profile will get you caught or draw attention and that's not what I wanted at all. For the most part I was above suspicion and I wanted to keep it that way. Don't change your lifestyle, at least not where people can see it.

Life was good and we were back in the money.

More lying, cheating and stealing in MN

One day at the bus depot. I was playing he pinball machine and had a friend along. We were just hanging out. I trusted him a little as we'd done a few things together.

The boss was hanging around and going in and out of the office. Leaving the door open because he was going back and forth a lot. So I watched his movements while we played pinball.

A couple of days later I talked my friend into going back again. Same thing happened, the door was open but the boss was coming and going. No real way to get into the office without help. Someone had to keep watch, that's all there was to it.

I knew who the someone who kept watch was going to be. Lol, it wasn't going to be my friend. Of course he didn't know any of this yet as he didn't know about the money. When I told him he was going to be the one to go in.

Lol, better he get busted in the office than me. He was also going to get blamed for all of he earlier money that was missing. However that would only happen if he got caught. Besides, I was confident of my ability to lie my way out of most of it. He couldn't.

The next time we went to the depot to play pinball I told him about the money and the office being locked. I told him exactly where the money was and how to get it. I also told him I was going to keep watch.

He couldn't work up the nerve to go in the first day. The boss just wasn't staying gone long enough. We had decided on one pack of 10's and he knew exactly where they were but it just didn't happen.

He was pretty excited about getting his hands on the money so we went back almost everyday. Finally one day we got the opportunity we were waiting for. The boss had gone up front and I heard one of the waitresses telling him there was a problem with the cash register.

I hurriedly waved my friend in and told him I'd bounce the machine if anyone was coming. He got in and was back in about 30 seconds. I didn't think there was any problem. He was so full of adrenaline he was practically bouncing off the walls.

He wanted to tell me all about it while we were there and I told him to shut up and play the game. The boss came back, went into his office and then came out again about 10 minutes later. While he was coming out of the office we left.

Better to let him see us leave 15 minutes after we'd been in than disappear while he was upfront again. So when we got away and alone my friend told me the damn file cabinet the money was in had been locked. Damn

More lying, cheating and stealing

As I said before I got sidetracked. I found out the schedule of the guy running the paper office and knew how much time I had to explore to find the money and figure out how to steal what I wanted.

The whole thing was going to be entirely blind and if anyone at all came in while I was doing it I was going to be busted. The office was set up with an L shaped counter with a piece that flipped up so you could get behind the counter. There was also a locked gate under the flipup top.

No problem there as I could just climb over the counter. That part was simple. So one day I did and I found the money drawer almost immediately. Only 4 drawers behind the counter and a few doors to store junk under the counter.

Considering only one of the drawers was locked it wsn't to tough to figure out where the money was. How to get at it was the problem. That was the part I hadn't been told. Because I only had less than a minute to do my thing it took me a few trys to figure it out.

First I tried picking the lock, shaking the drawer and wiggling it around and pulling on it as hard as I could without actually breaking it. None of that worked. I came quite close to getting caught behind the counter a couple of times and that was a major rush.

Conditions were seldom right for me to risk it so it took a couple of weeks. Turns out it was fairly simple in the end. What I had to do was open the door underneath the drawer and then slide my hand up, bend it over and I could get my hand on whatever was in the drawer.

A piece about an inch high had been broken off one side of the drawer and that left enough space to get my hand in. Had a total of about 3 inches of room to work with but I had small hands and wrists so it was okay.

The first time I just felt around to see what I could feel. Bank money bags was all. So then I started positioning myself so I could see what was actually in the drawer and what the manager was pulling out. He seldom got in the drawer while any of us were around so that took another couple of weeks.

I forget what day we were supposed to pay our paper bills at the office but I knew that's when there would be the most money. No brainer there. So when I finally decided to steal some I knew when, where and how.

The bus depot had pretty well dried up as that manager was taking more and keeping more of his precautions and the amount of cash found in open cars was never that much. Plenty of cigarettes, booze and other junk but mostly just loose change here and there.

So I finally hit the drawer. I crawled under the counter, reached up and felt around for the bag with the money in it, go it out and opened. Lol, my hands were shaking from the adrenaline but I managed it anyway and took ten bucks.

Didn't want to be greedy as I didn't want to lose the opportunity to steal from there on an ongoing basis. Seemed hilarious to me that I was stealing money from the paper office to pay my paper bill.

That happened on an ongoing basis for quite a long time and I never got caught. Seems the money was never missed either. I was always paying attention and listening to the talk and never, ever heard a word about it.

While I never got caught, I eventually did get implicated but that's another story. Did I know he things I was doing were wrong? Certainly did, problem was I didn't care. Lying to my parents, cheating at gambling and pinball and stealing were all wrong and I knew it every time.

It just didn't matter and I had no fear of the consequences.

My life continues in Fairmont-no bettter no worse

The friend who moved had told me how to steal from the paper office. Just remembered but it was the MPLS paper I was delivering.

Lol, I also just remembered why I almost always had a paper route wherever I lived. It was a legitimate way for me to have money and it also allowed me to checkout everything on my route. Who had things I might want, who smoked and left their cars doors unlocked, information about others from the gossips.

All of these things were valuable things to know. The paper routes also allowed me to be in areas and still cause no suspicion. MOF it lessened suspicion because it showed I was a hard working kid. The fact that I had straight A's in school also lessened suspicion.

Hmmm, with this being my 96th post I wonder if anyone has figured out yet that if I had been challenged at school and had anyone who cared about me I probably wouldn't have been doing all the stealing and scamming I was doing.

Boredom, not giving a damn about anything and the need for adrenaline lead me to watch everything and figure out how to do things. Basically things involved with stealing or getting away with something or getting information.

Oh well, if I'd been challenged I'd probably have become a lawyer, shrink or be involved with marketing. Just what the world needs, more good listeners and more good liars and truth twisters and manipulators. Doesn't matter, whatever I became I would have made a fortune at it.

Why am I so sure I would have made a fortune. Because I still would have tended to operate in gray area's and if I know one thing it's that a ton of money can be made in gray area's. I also know that you can break the 'spirit' of the rules with impunity by doing things in gray area's.

In the future some companies will create new rules because of my exploitation of those parts of the rules. Whenever I worked anywhere I always made sure I read the rules and the company handbook. It's always a good idea to know the rules and even a better idea to know the exceptions to the rules.

Believe me, there are always exceptions to every rule. Most of the time it's a matter of knowledge, rules that conflict with other rules, money or power. Point is there are always exceptions, it's up to you to find them. It's also nice if you can find a conflict between state and federal laws and company rules.

Lol, this is far in the future but one of my wives used to tell me I was a lot like the character on the old TV show "The Pretender". Heh, the first time one of them saw the Movie 'Swordfish' with Travolta and Halle she thought that I was like Travolta's char because she saw me as being very pragmatic and given to playing with people perceptions. Because no one ever really knew me or what I was thinking or going to do and I always had 2 or 3 backup plans.

Altho neither perceptions was 100% correct the one was impressed because when I wanted to I could talk with most anyone about most anything. That I knew a little bit about everything. The second thought what she thought because I lived by and kept my own rules, even if it caused me pain.

Getting far off the track again. Heh, maybe I need a blog called 'Brain Dump', ;) Anyway I tested what my friend had told me. It took quite some time but eventually I figured out that the guy in charge had a schedule.

If I was the very first one to get there after school I would have between 2 and 4 minutes before the next person got there and about 5 before the manager got back. Enough time to do what it was I needed to do but it took me a couple of weeks to get it done the first time.

Still stealing but I tell someone about it

I continued to take money from the managers office at the bus depot for months more. Finally I heard the manager bitching to the assistant manager that he just couldn't figure out who was stealing all the money.

The made plans to trap the person or persons doing it. As they were in the managers office I overheard the whole conversation and it wasn't going to be a problem. Lol, they even got around to asking me if I ever saw anyone strange around the area.

Naturally I hadn't and I told them all I'd seen was the usual kids and people when I was there but I did tell them I'd let them know if I did. Yeah, right.

At least there were no electronics around back then that could trip me up. No hidden surveillance cameras, nothing. The stuff just didn't exist. You had to actually be caught in the act and that was sometimes very hard to do.

The manager had started locking the door again and this time he wasn't forgetting to lock it. That sucked but I still had enough tucked way to last a kid for a couple of years. I missed the adrenaline rushes tho. Heh, even started collecting from people on my paper route so I didn't have to get into my stash.

Then I met another guy with a paper route and he and I became friends and hung around together quite a bit. We both liked the same things and got along pretty well. Bowling, fishing, pinball we had in common. He wasn't quite as good at any of them as I was but still better than most people.

One day we were talking about our paper routes and how we hated to collect. He finally told me he hardly ever collected and I asked him how he managed that. He told me he found a way to steal money from the paper office and no one could ever figure out who was doing it.

Once a week he'd steal enough to pay his paper bill and that was it. I asked him to tell me how to do it and he wouldn't. Irritated the hell out of me so I proposed a trade of information. I'd tell him where I was stealing from if he'd tell me how to do the paper office.

He agreed so I told him about the bus depot. He thought that was cool and he told me how to steal money from the newspaper office. So I traded a piece of worthless info for some currently good info. He was a bit irritated when he found out we couldn't take any money from the bus depot.

Turns out I got very lucky and a few weeks after we exchanged information his dad got a job in a different town and he was moving in a couple of weeks. As far as I know he never mentioned to anyone else that I had been stealing from the depot and him from the paper office.

At least no one ever watched me any closer than they ever did. Makes me wonder now if people even kept very good track of their money back then. Of course almost everyone back in the late 50's was much more trustworthy than people are now.

I kept playing pinball and watching the office door to see if it was open. It took a while but the manager did start leaving it unlocked again. Naturally I just kept waiting for my next opportunity.

It was summertime and nothing much else was going on. My uncle had managed to get invited to our house and molested me again a couple of times. I got the usual beatings for things I did and for things I didn't do. Whatever. None of it mattered as it was just life as usual for me.

I still spent as little time at home as was possible and snuck out frequently after my parents went to the bar or went to bed. I had to wait for my sister to go to sleep but she always went to bed when she was supposed to so I was free to go do what I wanted.

Stealing money, bowling and pinball

As I said earlier breaking 20 dollar bills was a problem. So I quit taking them. No brainer there huh. For a kid I had more money than I needed or could spend without arousing a lot of suspicion.

About the only things I spent money on were things I couldn't steal. Bowling, pinball, pizza and some of the bigger fishing lures that were kept behind the counter. I didn't live extravagantly but every now and then I would treat a couple of girls I liked to pizza.

I never came close to getting caught stealing from the bus depot. Not even once. Alas, all good things must come to an end and the easy money at the bus depot eventually ended.

Evidently I stole to much to fast because the owner finally started locking the office door. Didn't really matter as I had plenty buried so it wasn't like I needed the money. Besides, I was stealing from my drunken parents too and that was enough for the basics. I did miss the adrenaline rush tho.

I still hadn't heard much of anything about the missing money. No talk at all. Of course I wasn't in there all the time so it could have gone on while I wasn't there.

I kept going there to play pinball because they had some machines that were pretty easy to beat. A few months after the owner started locking the office door he started getting careless and he'd leave it open now and then.

I kind of figured it was a trap and stayed away from the temptation of going in when he left. I also suspected he didn't trust me much by then, or any of my so called friends either. I'd also noticed that we were being checked on by the waitresses more than was normal.

I waited until everything died down and the frequent checking stopped. The next time the door was left open I went in and hit it for a roll of nickles dimes, quarters, halves, and packs of 1's 5's and 10's.

Never heard a thing about that either and the owner was still careless with the door. Naturally I kept doing my thing.

Stealing, gambling, an adrenaline rush and not depressed

You've probably figured out that I loved to gamble. Considering I've told you I hustled pool, bowling, pinball and everything else I was great at. Even chess for drinks later on in life. Cards, pitching quarters, anything. As long as could gamble on it I would.

Almost always won. Stealing money and shoplifting gave me the same rush gambling did. Probably even more as the penalty for getting caught was going to be a lot more severe than losing a little money.

I watched the mangers office at the bus depot for another chance and sure enough it came along. So I snuck into the office again and went thru everything making sure I'd missed nothing before.

After I made sure I went and checked the filing cabinet. EUREKA. The filing cabinet drawers were filled with money. Pennies in one drawer, nickles in another all the way up to 100 dollar bills in the bottom drawer.

Now I had one hell of a dilemma. What did I dare take and how much? All that money for the taking freaked me out but I was smart enough to know that stealing a small amount was going to be a test to see if anyone noticed.

If I'd stolen a large amount it would have been noticed right away and with a possibility I might get caught. Obviously, to me anyway, I'd be both a prime suspect and questioned as a witness as to whether I saw anyone going in or out of the office.

So I played it smart. I took a roll of dimes, quarters and half dollars. Just taking one roll from each drawer could have been excused as a miscount of the money.

It was. I watched that place for a couple of weeks and never heard a peep about the missing money. Next time I needed to pay my paper bill I stole a bank bundle of ones from the filing cabinet.

I hated that paper route and I hated collecting. Some people were always bitchy about paying their bill. Besides, by stealing the money to pay my paper bill it was like I had money in the bank because people owed me for their papers.

I never collected from anyone for a few weeks and then someone called in and bitched I hadn't been by to collect. So I got chewed up for not keeping up on my collections. Lol, you'd think people would have been happy not to have to pay their bill. You can tell that was a long time ago. Doubt it would happen now.

I never heard anything about stealing the ones either so once I took a pack of fives and a pack of tens. Funny but that got by too. Don't know why it did or what the bus depot owner was into but never heard a word about that either.

No traps were ever set to catch me nor was I watched anymore than usual. Nor was the office locked anymore often than it ever was. So I was getting away with it. Continued to for quite a long time. I also discovered that stealing twenty dollar bills had a problem I never considered. I had to much to figure out to be depressed.

Scamming and stealing in my early years

This is continued from the last post. Yes I was playing pinball when the owner of the place came to his office to get change. I saw him come out but it was to busy for me to check it out any more than that.

I was in there about 4 more times before the opportunity finally presented itself for me to get back into his office without worrying about getting caught.

I was play the machines one night and I heard him tell the waitresses up front he was going home for the rest of the night. He then pulled his office door shut and left.

I checked on what the waitresses were doing and when they got busy I went and tried the door. Much to my surprise it wasn't locked. I went in and shut the door behind me and started looking around.

There was the usual junk, file cabinets and a huge desk. Plus there was this little still file holder about 3 feet high. Large folders went into the top and then it had about 15 drawers down the front of it. It was just wide enough to hold files.

Lol, most of you have no clue what I'm talking about, to young to know, but back then there were no computers, no faxes, no nothing. Everything was kept in Manila file folders in a filing cabinet.

I searched thru the desk and everything else I could find and didn't find any money anywhere. Then I started getting scared and wondering how I was going to get out without being seen.

I pulled the door open a crack and looked out and there was no one around so I slipped out and shut the door behind me. I figured I was just out of luck and he didn't really keep any money in the office. That perhaps it just happened that he had the rolls of half dollars in there instead of in the safe.

It was still one of my regular pinball stops tho. I was playing again about a week later when one of the waitresses hollered that they needed some ones. The owner once again went into his office and came out with money for the till.

Now I was certain the money was in there, I just had to look harder for it. So I thought about it for a while, a week or so, went thru the layout of the place in my head and knew I'd looked everywhere. Everywhere except in the filing cabinet.

The top had been open so I knew it was full of files. What I didn't know was what was in the drawers. I'd ignored it the first time because I knew what it was.

I wasn't going to ignore it the next time. However it took another week before a good opportunity came along.