I just read a blog posting from someone I follow here and for some reason it reminded me of an incident I had many moons ago, when I was 13.
The year: 1993.
The place: Eckerds (when they carried cards).
13 year old tanmanbaseballfan strolled in to grab a few packs of 1992-93 Ultra and Stadium Club in hopes of snagging a Shaquille O'neal rookie card. Just then, comes a short hispanic kid from my school with a HUUUUGE jacket on.
He was up to no good.
As I got my packs and paid, he slinked out the door, without even looking at the cash register, let alone going to check out anything. You see, I *knew* he had taken some packs ... but I didn't see him, so it would have been social suicide to call him out in a public store as a thief, much less if I didn't actually know for sure.
After stewing thoughts in my head of "thieves are losers", "winners never cheat & cheaters never win", "he's going to jail at some point", "he's not going to pull anything from those packs", I made it home on my bike, and ran upstairs to the apartment with my 2 packs in the bag, ready to make some magic happen.
I opened up the packs ... WHAMMO!!! Shaquille O'neal rookie card! "Read it and cry, thief!" I thought to myself. He most likely was at home wallowing in a combination of guilt and freshly pulled commons.
Monday morning comes, and I see him in the halls at school.
PSSST....check this out....
He opened his big, oversized jacket pocket and it was glowing. His face was illuminated. It was a $50 insert he pulled of Shaq from his newly acquired booty.
0_o.
So kids, the moral of the story is to not steal...because....well.....it is wrong.
After this posting, I am going to have to re-think my career track of wanting to be a professional motivational speaker / big brother.
this story didn't teach me not to steal ;)
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