The 'Thrill' of Theft

摘要

If all you've ever done is pay for stuff, you'd never know how it felt. It was thrilling, she says, a heart-pounding rush of greed and fear as she stuffed the bathing suits into her bag, two identical sets of tops and bottoms, because she was going to a concert the next night with a friend and they wanted to wear the same thing. She was in eighth grade then, and she'd been stealing for a year, partly for the fan of getting away with something, but also partly because no way was she going to spend $70 on one of those suits. "I think, 'I could be spending my money on this, but I'm getting it for free'," she told NEWSWEEK. "Then I get to spend my money on things my parents don't know I'm buying―like beer, drugs and cigarettes." But there's always danger. "Your heart starts to race, and all you can think about is getting out of the store. It's like, 'I've taken what I need to take, let's get out of here.' But I get really excited because I'm thinking 'I already got a bunch of stuff in my bag and I can get a whole lot more'." She moved on to the rack of Muddjeans.