Christ, now you're talking. How long have you got? As a seventeen-to-eighteen year old jobless yoot, living in a shitty bedshit in a South Coast of England town, small-time "shottin'" and shop theft was my bread and butter. Seriously dark days, that made me the man I am today...ahem..
- on my 18th birthday taxed £300 worth of kids clothes, sold 'em to my "fence" for cash and hash, went for a meal then went raving (on red & yellows...daaaaaamn)
- me and my mate stole a HUGE soft toy of a hedgehog from Clinton Cards, making a half-hearted attempt to conceal it using both of our puffa jackets
-TDK SA90 cassettes were the LICK. Available just about everywhere, could get a quid each for 'em...me and my pals used to drive to different South Coast towns, stopping off at every Woolworth's and taxing ALLl the SA90s
- went into branch of Fosters Clothing (now defunct), surreptitiously threw about 10 children's t-shirts into the changing room, dead quickly so the shop assistant couldn't see me. Asked to try on a shirt, went into changing room, put all the child's t-shirts on, one on top of another - it was a struggle - then put my original top on over them. Then came out with the shirt, said "I might come back for this mate", sweltering hot, looking a lot thicker-set than when I went in. Breezed out of there, went to public WC, struggled to take off all kid's shirts, went and fenced 'em for weed and I was a happy brer.
There's too many to mention, really. Used to nick CDs from bargain bin (Woolworth's again), take 'em to the bogs, take off cellophane, scratch the cases a bit with a coin, then take 'em to the second hand record shop, run by a fruity old drunken Irishman. He always bought all of them off me without question (although a good question would have been "why do you have 5 copies of the Jive Bunny album?"...). Take the money, buy some fags, go to the cafe for a fry-up...
(sadly, this same shop bought a lot of my old punk vinyl...a> I was desperate and b> had "House Music Year Zero" mentality and thought I'd never want to listen to Black Flag again...you learn, eh?...)
...those were the days as a "yoot on road"...chequered past innit...
...for the record, haven't got the bottle to pinch ANYTHING anymore, haven't been able to for years...got caught too many times, then paranoia sets in...brrrrrrr.... got banned from all branches of Burtons, Fosters, Woolworths (wish I'd kept the letters)...got banned from every branch of McDonalds in the world (!) as well...that's another story...
the store detectives who used to work in Woolworths (who nicked me and my mates and thought they were something off The Sweeney) actually came in to our local boozer once...and left after five minutes, as soon as everyone realised who they were...hehe...