Leading on from the news item about a youth stealing a tram in Australia, what 'crimes' did you commit as a child? I am obviously not asking anyone to admit to real crimes and perhaps having had a brush with the law, I am thinking more along the lines of fairly innocuous crimes.

I admit to scrumping (stealing from trees) apples. Near where we lived there was a lot of waste land and the houses which backed onto it had very long gardens so the bottom of them couldn't be seen from the houses - all the kids used to climb over the fences and grab a few apples - we felt SO wicked!

Any more criminals out there?

Edited to correct typos - I am still having trouble with my left hand 'post-stroke', I often miss a letter or type two as I don't have full use yet although it is better than it was.

When I was young we had a man that lived a few doors down from us, He loved his garden and was always out there doing one thing or another to it. One day my friend and I ran past his garden and threw a load of tiny stones on his newly mowed lawn!!! He chased us and took us back to our houses, we had to go and pick them all up and were grounded for a week! Im now 31 and still get pangs of guilt when i think about it.

How about ringing doorbells an running away? Yes, I admit to that one too!

Quote:

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all the kids used to climb over the fences and grab a few apples

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Didn't everyone? Thats not a crime, thats a part of life...
I did some pretty appalling things, but I suppose the worst was:
We lived in a Lady Doctor's house, my mum was the housekeeper. The doctor had her own pharmacy , they did in those days.
I was about 7 and a friend came over to play. We got into the Pharmacy and mixed up a ' potion' for the younger son of the house. It had lots of lovely colours in and looked pretty tasty... thank heaven he didnt drink it!
I was hugely punished.
A budding Ms Crippen...
Oh yes, knocking on doors... we call that 'cherry knocking', what fun it was.

Yikes! I shoplifted! Go to the nearby store and fill up my pockets. Scary thing is that no one ever suspected me as I was good at doing it. The little Mr. Innocent kid at the counter. Little did they know that I had 10 bucks of their stuff stashed away. Not at all proud of that now.

I got caught shoplifting when I was about 11. They took me to the little office in boots and called my mum at work and my friend who was with me got taken home by the police. I cried my eyes out, I honestly believed I was going to prison! Never did it again after that, I got the fright of my life!

I used to knock on doors and run away too! Who didn't?

I also used to take money from the copper jar to go and buy penny bubble gums from the ice cream man

OK, I confess! When I was about seven or eight a slightly older girl who lived near us persuaded me to shoplift too, I knew it was wrong. We went into Woolworths and I took a small box of chocolates and hurried after her out of the store, another girl spotted me and caught up with me and dragged me back into the shop. I was taken to the manager's office, my 'friend' ran away. I was terrified and a few days later the manager came to my home and told my parents. Oh boy was I in trouble. It was many years before I could bring myself to enter Woolworths again.

I learned my lesson, you couldn't get a more honest person since then, always owning up if given too much change or not charged for something.

I can put my hand on my hart and say I have never rang a door bell or knocked on a door and ran away...ill just check my haylo is still straight! When i had my daughter Rhiannon my son was only 3 so i bought one of the really big silver cross prams. It had a little seat on the top of it for him, I didn't have a car so used to walk and do my shopping. Most of the time i put the shopping on top of the pram, i had a huge bag of nappies i needed to get so popped them under the pram....Yes i payed for the shopping and forgot all about the nappies. Did i say the next time i went in the shop...ummmmm nope!

When I was young, a loooooooong time ago, My friends and I got ahold of some fire crackers the kind that were strung together (they're illegal here now)and I set them off in the yards near my home. It was after dark and it must have scared some of the older folks. I ran home but someone must have seen me as a policeman came knocking at the door. I denied it and got a good talking to and then a smack from my Dad. Those were the days when if an adult said you did it your parents didn't defend you, they believed the adult and took action. Yes my parents struck me, when I was bad, not often but I usually deserved it. Did it ruin me for life? I became a Police Constable and served for 30 yrs. and I loved both my parents dearly God Bless them. However I never struck my own children, never felt the need. Different times I guess.

When I was in third grade, I had to bring home a test for my mother to sign. I forgot to bring it home and "thought" I could sign her name. I signed her name and was caught by the nun. I got a five point demerit and had to stay after school for a week for my "forgery" attempt.

I am possibly the worst of the lot here as I have done all the things you guys have posted and more! I used to shoplift a lot when I was younger... my friends and I would pop into the pharmacy across the street from my school and one of them would create a diversion while the rest of us would stuff our pockets full (of chocolate and candies, not drugs ). Once, at school, I got this wicked idea that they would have to let all the students go home if the toilets all backed up, so I went to the girls bathroom, stuffed loads of toilet paper into each bowl and flushed, flushed, flushed to my hearts content and then ran away... needless to say, they just closed the bathroom and made us use the boys bathroom, but I thought I was a genious at the time... I also used to knock on doors and run away as a few of you have mentioned (in my part of Canada it's called playing Nicky, Nicky Nine Doors... I don't know why)... I've reformed since then, I'm no longer a little delinquent, but wasn't it sooo fun to be bad sometimes?

I think I may have told this one before, but Gemini, your toilet misdemeanour in order to miss lessons has reminded me.
Our school was an old building with raftered ceilings. There were small doors so that workmen could gain access to the attics, but only plaster between the rafters. We got in there one day, in order to miss Geography. We were most careful to put our feet only on the rafters and not on the plaster ceiling..... until of course someone made me laugh. We had fits of real falling about laughter in those days. I lost my balance and my foot went onto , and through, the plaster. Underneath was the Geography room, my foot dangling above the teacher's headand plaster flakes everywhere.
We were sent straight to the Headmistress. To make it worse, we couldn't stop laughing. We were sent home, and I was grounded for weeks. Oh but the memories are great!!

Skipping class, hmmm? I only had the nerve to do that once, in 9th grade [form].
My girl friend and I both had math tests and we decided that life was short, we would both take what those on Madison Avenue call a 'mental health day.' For us, that consisted of little more than swigging Dr. Peppers and eating cherry mashes, watching The Andy Griffith show with the sound turned down because it interfered with the Led Zepplin album blasting in the living room!

Which reminds me. Did anyone besides American teenagers watch tv and listen to music at the same time? We sure did that to death in the 70's, for some reason.

"I admit to scrumping (stealing from trees) apples" .

My friend and I scrumped pomegranates at the age of 7. Forbidden fruit tasted so sweet.

"How about ringing doorbells an running away?"

Never did that but when staying at my aunt and uncle's house, my cousin Christine (a year older than me) used to make prank phone calls. I never had the nerve but that didn't stop me being highly entertained when she did it. She used to ring people up and say "Hello, this is your friendly Kelvinator girl calling. Is your refrigerator running?" If the person answered "yes", she'd say "Well, you'd better hurry up and catch it then" and hang up.

"When I was about seven or eight a slightly older girl who lived near us persuaded me to shoplift too, I knew it was wrong. We went into Woolworths...".

Sue, you and I have a lot in common.

When I was three I "shoplifted" from Woolworths. I was still in the pram and probably too young to know what I was doing. I took a Micky Mouse watch that my mother apparently said I could not have. She found it in the pram when we got home, so she marched me straight back down to the store and made me hand it back to the sales-clerk and confess to stealing it. His heart melted and he said "Oh, she's so sweet. She can have it". My mother promptly tore strips off him for that, telling him that she was trying to bring me up right and he wasn't helping! It must have made quite an impression. Not only did I not shoplift as a teenager when all my friends were doing it, but I would not go into a Woolworth's store until I was an adult, and I wouldn't even walk on the same side of the street as that particular Woolworth's store.

"Skipping class, hmmm? I only had the nerve to do that once".

I did that once. My best friend Paula and I decided to wag school and go to my house. My friend Anne got wind of it and insisted on coming with us. Anne told Vanessa and Krystyna, and they came too. With all five of us "best friends" missing, the nuns didn't find it too difficult to work out we were probably together. They tried my house first because I lived closest to the school. I'll never forget the horror of opening my front door to Sr Paschal and Mother Superior. I think we probably had Led Zeppelin blasting on the stereo too! Boy did we cop it for that escapade!

I shoplifted once - was my friends birthday and i took a chocolate and put in in my coat .. the man caught me and I bolted as far as I could. About 6 months later the very same man was a substitute teacher in one of my classes. Didn't recognize me, thank God, but he did suffiently scare the crap out of me that I wouldn't dream of doing it again.

Few prank phone calls I guess and I wagged school on the last day of the year and got caught by my brother down the street. Cost me two dollars to keep him quiet about it.

What a lightfingered lot we were! I have felt guilty about the Woolworths episode all my life, and it happened about 50 years ago.

Another crime - my mother used to have half a dozen clumps of crysanthemums in a border along the front of the house, one day for the sheer hell of it I placed a foot squarely in the centre of each clump. My mother was livid and blamed the boy who lived across the road, she gasve him a right telling off. I didn't own up for about 40 years! Sorry Tony Holroyd!

At school, well what can I say? One of the music teachers had this little dog, a Yorkshire Terrier, which she kept with her all the time. I have always been rather good at animal impressions so one day I barked from a distance and the poor thing went ballistic! I got away with it that time, it really was hilarious.

Then there was the time I jabbed the vicar in the bum with a pin! I would have been 14 or 15 at the time. We used to attend a church youth club and someone dared me to stick a pin in his backside, he was furious with me! Whoops.

You're all going to burn in Hell.

I never did anything wrong.

Honest.

But I do know that beans, carrots and peas taste better when you wipe the dirt off them after running half a mile with them under your shirt.

Speaking of skiving lessons...

When I was in 6th Form we had to do this aptitude test thing one morning. Once you were finished you were supposed to go straight to lesson, so of course most of us went to the 6th form block, figuring we'd go in a little while and claim we'd just finished the test.
The last person to finish was this really swotty boy called David. He went straight to sociologoy after he finished, and when he was asked where the rest of us were he told the teacher we must be skiving cos he was the last one to finish. So Mr Scott came storming up to the 6th form block looking for us. He singled out every member of the class and gave us a right telling off, in front of the whole 6th form. Then said "and if any of the rest of you are meant to be in a lesson I'd suggest you get there right now."

Nobody would speak to David for about a week!

When I was 12, I became a librarian at school. I was always busy performing my duties that I often blew off homework, especially English. Once, my mom had to help me complete it in the car while I went for my classes. (I would collect it before English class started). My English teacher couldn't take my attitude anymore and wanted my Dad to sign my book. I thought about it and decided to sign it myself! My teacher instantly knew that I had faked my Dad's signature but I refused to admit it. Then she sent me to the headmistress's office. After being advised, I swore to myself I wouldn't do silly stuffs again.

* This is the second time I faked a signature. The first time was when I was 10. I got bad grades and didn't want my parents to find out. So I faked my Mom's signature. Dad found out ...

EJ

I was such a goody-two-shoes as a child... I lived in a not-so-great neighborhood, and even in 5th grade one of my classmates was already having relations with older boys. Many of my classmates skipped classes, some did drugs, many shoplifted. Somehow I, my sister, and our two best friends managed to stay wholesome within our little group. The worst thing we did was pick flowers from neighbors' flowerbeds to give to our mothers. Well, on second thought, I suppose we made a couple prank phone calls once or twice, but I don't really remember it.

When I was in junior high I "snuck out" a couple times, just to see if I could do it. When I was 14, my best friend and I spent a summer sneaking out almost every night to spend time with some older guys. At the time there was no curfew, so aside from not having parental permission, there wasn't really anything illegal about us being out at 2:00am, or even in the company of guys 5 years older than us, especially since we two girls were enjoying ourselves but not at the expense of our dignity.

I shoplifted once, but not until I was a senior in high school. I was 17. All my friends, including my boyfriend, had graduated already, and most of them were living on their own by this time. A couple of my friends were shoplifting to feed themselves, stealing steaks from the grocery store. I had never done anything truely illegal, and I wondered if I could, so I stole a small vase from the Salvation Army store. (Even while trying to be "naughty" I justified it by thinking that this vase had been donated, so cost the store nothing, and it was marked at only $0.59, so would not cause them to lose out on much either, and somehow this was better than trying my hand at shoplifting at a jewelry store.) I did it the one time, felt guilty and turned right around and dropped the vase in the donation box the very next day, along with a bunch of clothes and other things I'd weeded out from my closet.

The one time I skipped class was during the honors assembly. Except it wasn't really class because everyone had to go to an assembly where the seniors got their names called out for special mentions. I had a bad back and didn't feel like sitting in a folding chair for two hours, and didn't really want all my accomplishments (which were numerous, frankly) bandied about in front of the school, so I chose to go to the zoo that afternoon, and instead of making a right turn into the gym for the assembly, I made a left turn out the side doors and headed for the park. When I knew the assembly was over and it was time for classes to start, I headed back to school, and noone ever missed me.

Loth's parents must've been a lot like mine. It was drilled into us to behave responsibly and to be honest. By the time I was in school, it would have no more occurred to me to steal something than to jump off a building.

The main reason? My father. I watched his life over the years, even when he thought I wasn't paying attention. He was always on the up end when selling cattle, was so careful to treat his employees and ranchhands well, never cheated on his taxes and once sent a $60,000. back to Lone Star Gas, for whom he was supervising the ductwork and thermostat calibration on one of their new plants. Somebody had miscalculated what was owed for materials, and cut a check for considerably more than what was needed. He showed me the check before he put it in the mail, explaining that even though on a job that size, probably nobody would question the money, it was still money that didn't belong to him. I never forgot it, even in high school when my friends seemed to suddenly be lifting things left and right!

It's certainly not that I'm such a wonderful human being, either, because I've done other things I'm not proud of and that cause me to be uncomfortable even today. But because of my dad's example, I guess I was spared one more fault in life!

I'm almost embarrassed to say that I can't recall any childhood pranks or mishaps. I was such a goody-two-shoes! Still am. My parents were attentive and affectionate but we got away with nothing!

Mom and Dad made it all to clear that bad behaviour was not to be tolerated at any time in any place. If we had gotten into trouble at school, for instance, we were warned that we would be in double trouble when we got home. And they believed in corporal punishment. I guess the rod was used often enough to not 'spoil the child'.

Okay, here's my list (yikes, I don't like the sound of that!):

Telephone pranks? Yes, briefly. Until a lady told us that it wasn't very nice! (can't remember who my accomplice was...I am sure it wasn't my idea!)

While traveling with my mom to California (age 8 or so), my sisters and I thought it'd be cool to write our home state (Missouri) on the bathroom wall at rest stop. Mom made us scrub it off...as I recall that was a Futile attempt at best.

When my sister and I would go to sleep, we'd have a fight about who would turn off the light. She'd go to sleep with the light on and I'd be left to turn it off. I got brave, don't know why I thought of this, but I would lift up her eye lids to see if she was asleep! And she wouldn't wake up!

Oh, and something else...I haven't told me sister but really need to! (don't tell her yet!)

I took her silver dollars...maybe 10 or so? and never told her. I am really ashamed of this. I need to tell her, buy her some, though, those would be worth so much today....over 20 years ago. Hard to make up for that...



P.S. Now, having to face this here, I have to make this right with her someway, somehow!

ktstew, I know exactly how you feel. I have done things that weren't right or weren't nice, but I've always tried to be...upstanding. My dad owned his own business as well, and I worked there for quite some time. He's probably the most decent person I know, and my mother follows suit.

To make up for my shoplifting experience as a teenager (which I actually made up for then...) I'll say this: A few months ago I gave the bank back $600 that they mistakenly deposited in my account. Actually, they mistakenly input it when I was AT the bank, but they put it in "cash" so I don't think there'd be any way to find the error once it was in the system, unless the teller happened to remember me and how much I'd given her, and match that with my deposit slip. I'd even gotten halfway back to work, and was running late on my lunch break, and turned around and went back. To be honest, I could really have used that $600, too. Almost a whole mortgage payment for me, and I was behind at the time. But obviously my parents had some impact, because back I went, up to the teller, showed her her mistake and smiled a little sadly when she handed me a corrected deposit slip and said not a word more, not even thanks. (I guess my $600 honesty didn't mean that much to them, or her, though it probably saved her her job.)