People Who Steal.

Remy

Well-known Member
Location
California, USA
Thought of this while out walking for some reason. Years ago, late 80's, working one of my many high end jobs in a nursing home laundry, a co-worker stole my watch. I'm sure she did. It wasn't expensive, one of those jelly watches that were popular. It was green.

I was at the end of my shift and she was coming on. I had the watch next to the sink since I frequently washed my hands. I noted her putting her hand way into her purse and she immediately asked me some question as a way to deflect I think and then I noticed my watch was gone. Never turned up. I didn't confront her.

And it made me think, why do people do this? Was she young and dumb and wouldn't do that later in life? Is she a life long petty thief or worse? I couldn't steal something like that but plenty of people do. And I've heard people will deny getting their Etsy and other orders in the hope of a refund or a second item. I don't know, I don't get it. Are their minds different than more honest people?
 

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Lots of reasons, from the fun of it to people who really believe they needed the money. Wrong no matter what.
Was she young and dumb and wouldn't do that later in life?
Maybe, lets hope so. When I was very young, under 12 I stole a few things, candy and change. Never got caught, but I still regret it and won't do it again. This lady was a lot older.
Is she a life long petty thief or worse?
Possibly, at her age even likely (just my guess, no expert).
I've heard people will deny getting their Etsy and other orders in the hope of a refund or a second item.
Probably more common that we would want to think. I know Amazon monitors this kind of thing and will terminate a customer who does too much of it.
Are their minds different than more honest people?
Not sure, I don't know how much honesty is inherited instinct vs learned. I suspect it is more learned.
 
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I hate thieves.. I absolutely detest it.. Once a thief always a thief in my opinion..

The first time I remember having something stolen from me was way back in school.. I had one of those pens which had 4 colours, and the girl behind me stole it, and flaunted it.. without admitting she stole it, and she was the class bully so I couldn't confront her..

..I've had things stolen from me since.. my own sister stole every piece of clothing I owned from my home.. ( long story maybe for another time)... ..same sister stole my bike a few years later.. ( we were adults)..

Another time I had my car broken into and had the CD player prised out and stolen...

I had my house broken into and several electrical items stolen

Did I mention .. I HATE thieves... :mad:
 

A friend of mine (Paxton's grandmother) said her daughter steals from people she doesn't like, especially girls/women, and she doesn't like ones who are prettier than her or look at her boyfriend (Paxton's father) a certain way, who she thinks look down on her, etc.

When my friend cleared out her daughter's bedroom, after the daughter moved out, she found garbage bags full of ladies bras and underwear, some belonging to the friend's room-mate, 34 charging cords, several other-people's journals, dozens of ladies blouses, boots and belts, loads of make-up, 14 curling irons, and 7 blow-dryers. And most of it was obviously not new, so, not stolen from a store.
 
It's from the lower functions of the mind. In that lowly evolved state of the soul, one who steals will also lie, will also cheat, will also
perform many other lowly actions. This comes from small minds, I mean, they have a narrow vision and a narrow scope of life.
Most of their behavior results in misunderstandings and an increase in tension.
Many things, including my original paintings, have been stolen from me.
Someone (I know who) stole my 24 foot extension ladder!
They are just THINGS! Things arn't important. Moments are important. let it go. They will grow to know better in their own time.
 
I had a very close friend for over nineteen years. We would go shopping and on the way out she'd show me a small item she stole. I also worked with her in an engineering office of a very large factory and she would take stamps, envelopes, pads of paper, etc. She did not think of it as stealing. Then years later she moved closer to me. My husband was complaining about needing a new chain for his chainsaw but we could not afford to buy one right away. By this time she worked for the department of transportation (NYS) and she asked one of the guys to get her a couple of chains. He did and she gave them to my husband. Not only that, but she also took an office chair right out of her office to the underground parking lot passing the security guard who spoke to her. I know about this because she laughed about it later.

Why she did this? I have no idea. She was not just a secretary, but an administrative assistant to the head guy of the bridge department. She made good money and bought expensive items so didn't have to steal. Now she is retired and I am no longer friends with her. I wrote on an old blog about someone who fit her profile and stealing and she read it and got mad at me. I know I should not have written about it but nobody would have known it was her and I was talking in general terms.
 
I hate thieves.. I absolutely detest it.. Once a thief always a thief in my opinion..

The first time I remember having something stolen from me was way back in school.. I had one of those pens which had 4 colours, and the girl behind me stole it, and flaunted it.. without admitting she stole it, and she was the class bully so I couldn't confront her..

..I've had things stolen from me since.. my own sister stole every piece of clothing I owned from my home.. ( long story maybe for another time)... ..same sister stole my bike a few years later.. ( we were adults)..

Another time I had my car broken into and had the CD player prised out and stolen...

I had my house broken into and several electrical items stolen

Did I mention .. I HATE thieves... :mad:
OMG, that's horrible! I've been lucky with my car. At work the car right next to me got their window busted out. I had a box of litter in my back seat. Highly allergic to cats thieves?

It's all horrible but having your home broken into is the absolute worst. What a violation. It's one of my fears. And even when I owned that horrible house, I was not broke into but I worried about it a lot. One of the reasons I sold.
 
A friend of mine (Paxton's grandmother) said her daughter steals from people she doesn't like, especially girls/women, and she doesn't like ones who are prettier than her or look at her boyfriend (Paxton's father) a certain way, who she thinks look down on her, etc.

When my friend cleared out her daughter's bedroom, after the daughter moved out, she found garbage bags full of ladies bras and underwear, some belonging to the friend's room-mate, 34 charging cords, several other-people's journals, dozens of ladies blouses, boots and belts, loads of make-up, 14 curling irons, and 7 blow-dryers. And most of it was obviously not new, so, not stolen from a store.
Wow, that's one for a psychiatrist to analyze.
 
OMG, that's horrible! I've been lucky with my car. At work the car right next to me got their window busted out. I had a box of litter in my back seat. Highly allergic to cats thieves?

It's all horrible but having your home broken into is the absolute worst. What a violation. It's one of my fears. And even when I owned that horrible house, I was not broke into but I worried about it a lot. One of the reasons I sold.
I forgot to mention that I also had a car broken into in Spain.. they broke the drivers side window, but there was nothing to take, so they caused me a load of hassle for no reward to them... I had to deal with a car insurance company and a breakdown recovery company in a second language..not my own..

On the day my car was broken into here, it was the early hours of the morning before were were due to drive to the airport.. so it was dark as we went out to the car at 4am.. and I didn't notice at first as I put the luggage in the back.. but there was nothing we could do but drive the car to the airport because we had a flight to catch in 2 hours and the registration of that car was already booked in, so we couldn't change it , and we couldn't leave the car here at the house unlocked....so we had to drive to the airport and have the insurance company arrange for it to be collected from there... to have it repaired.. alll very stressful for the sake of some petty thief wanting something someone else worked and paid for...
 
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Plagiarism is theft, theft of intellectual property, there have been some classic examples of plagiarism:
President Joe Biden has fallen foul of plagiarism several times throughout the years. He failed a course when he was in law school because he plagiarised a paper. According to the New York Times, Biden stated that he had "used five pages from a published law review article without quotation or attribution" in an article he wrote for the Fordham Law Review. In 1988, Biden was forced to withdraw from the presidential race due to plagiarism allegations. Some of his speeches were taken from speeches made by the Kennedy's, Hubert Humphrey and Britain's Neil Kinnock during his campaign against Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
 
.... I wrote on an old blog about someone who fit her profile and stealing and she read it and got mad at me. I know I should not have written about it but nobody would have known it was her and I was talking in general terms.
Except her. I actually think that's pretty funny. And it's good you wrote it; she needed that look in the mirror.
 
One of the biggest problems with "thievery" is Shoplifting. Last year, the stores lost over 67 billion dollars to the thieves. Those billions of dollars are passed along to all of us in the form of higher prices.

https://comparecamp.com/shoplifting-statistics/
"75% adults" I take that's 18 or older but still. Crazy. I'd be so afraid to get caught in addition to the fact that I don't want to steal.

Years ago I was at the Salvation Army store where they sell their 'better' stuff. The cashier said to another, "she just walked out with that (clothing item) bold as can be." They didn't go after her. I looked, it was a younger woman but adult.
 
My Gramps told me often that anyone who would steal would lie and there is no person worse than a liar. I was about 12 when he first told me that so I never lied to him and I didn’t have to steal because if I asked him or Grandma for something that was necessary, they would see to it that I got it. They weren’t rich and the profit from the farm gave us a good life, so we weren’t hurting for money.

Not to mention Gramps had 3 oil rigs pumping oil and natural gas on his farmland 24/7. I know Columbia Gas owned the mineral rights to the gas and Standard Oil of Ohio owned the mineral rights to the oil until it dried up. That part of Ohio is known for having tons of natural gas.
 
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Oh, I want to contribute this:
When I was in elementary school, a classmate I didn't like much told me about a scam her mother had come up with: she'd purchased a clothing item for one of her kids, and when it didn't arrive (by mail) she contacted the company and they sent a replacement; after this incident, she decided whenever she wanted two of something, to simply tell a company she didn't receive the first one (even when she did) and get a second free-of-charge. Even as a kid (around 9 yrs old) I thought that was awful.
 
My Gramps told me often that anyone who would steal would lie and there is no person worse than a liar
Lying is a hard one, some very gray areas. For example in answer to the question "how are you?" how many times do people lie and just say "fine". Its easy to point out evil lies or little white lies, but there is a lot of gray in-between.

Truth is, everyone lies all the time

 


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