It was sophomore year, Spring semester breaking as the frozen Winter campus melted into meadows of crocuses, colored deep blue and gold, the University’s colors.
Everyone was doing it, it seemed…. The shop lifting thing…. So Deidre decided to try it too!
She had rehearsal for the University variety show in a few hours, so her little experiment had to happen quickly….it wouldn’t do to miss rehearsal.
Deidre walked into the June Bug, the most popular clothing store in the small town surrounding the University and found a skirt she liked. She took it to the dressing room and arranged it so it was hidden beneath the long skirt she was already wearing. And then, as blithely as any innocent thing, she put on her Springtime raincoat over the entire crime,and began her journey out of the store.
She felt excited that not only had she gotten away with the first crime of her life, but that she’d have a fetching new skirt to sashay around in as the snows melted,and the campus spirits ran warmer.
She’d gotten away with it!
But then….she, of course, didn’t.
As she had almost made it to the sunny Main Street, her new stolen goods snuggled safely beneath , she felt a hand on her shoulder, and she heard a low voice, male and steady, say “ Come with me please, young lady…” and BOOM! …… a criminal record was about to be born.
The rest was a blur for Deidre, but she later remembered sitting in the store managers office for the entire time it took for her mother to fly in from the neighboring state, take custody of her daughter and arrange for a lawyer, all in one fell swoop, resulting in the dismissal of charges and a stern warning from the local judge on duty. Deidre was after all a young first time offender, and her offense hurt no one but her own sense of pride. She also lost any right to own the skirt, even though she did offer to purchase it properly , legally and with her own money ….well, actually, with her mothers credit card.
Deidre missed rehearsal that afternoon, and with an excuse from her uncle the doctor assuring the powers that be that Deidre had spent the afternoon and evening in the local hospital because she had fainted in her dance class, all was ultimately forgiven and life went on.
No one ever knew that on that day, a new criminal was almost minted, a skirt was almost stolen, and a young college student learned a lifelong lesson: search the garment for hidden alarm devices before you attempt to steal it.
What had possessed her to steal?
That’s another story for another time, but…well…youth counts for much, as does its accompanying lack of common good sense.
One thing she knew for sure: she really liked that long flouncy skirt, and although she’d never set foot in the June Bug again, she managed to find the same skirt months later in another store in another town.
It was on sale.