Gather 'round kids, and come with me now as I relive a small and embarrassing chapter of my life I should probably just leave forgotten. A tale of friendship, greed and stupidity, but mostly greed. A tale from a weird, bygone era known as "the mid-eighties", long before the over-proliferation of security cameras we have today, it's the story of when I turned into a bit of a shoplifter.
I was in the sixth grade when a few friends who lived outside my immediate neighborhood and myself got real bored one afternoon and somebody said "let's go down to the Plaza and steal some action figures." Wasn't my idea because I'd never done that, but they sure had because instantly they all latched onto the plan. Action figures and toys were kind of fading out of interest for me, but these were my nerdier, geekier friends so it didn't really seem odd as far as that goes (these are the same kids who I would end up playing Dungeons and Dragons with for the first time, if that helps paint the picture). But the stealing aspect, that was new. Quickly though, any real thought about it was dismissed by their confidence from having done it before. And it turns out they had a different approach then I had envisioned once we got inside the 5 And Dime store.
They just ripped the figure out of the package, grabbed the little accessories, and then just tossed the cardboard and plastic back on a shelf...
