Legally Wrong

It was the spring break of my senior year and I was so excited for the week ahead of me. I had been working so hard in school that I was ready for a break and I was definitely ready for some fun. My friends and I knew that this had to be the best spring break ever because it was our last one of high school.
Monday rolled around; the first official day of break. I picked up my two friends Krissy and Kate and we headed to Starbucks to make plans for the day. It was a beautiful sunny day in Cincinnati, Ohio and my friends and I were probably the happiest girls in Starbucks that early afternoon. We decided that even though we didn’t have very much money we would go to the mall and look around anyways.
The first store we went to was Dillards. As we entered the store we passed the shiny merchandise and went to the escalators. We headed to the second floor, which was the juniors department. The second floor of Dillards had become our new favorite place because we had shopped there for several occasions that year. We began picking up silky shirts and beautiful spring dresses. Even though we knew we couldn’t afford them we still wanted to experience the fun of seeing what we looked like in them. After gathering several articles of clothing my friends and I headed back to the dressing room.
Torturing ourselves, we stood and admired the beautiful clothes that were on our bodies. I had on the prettiest white silk shirt that was held up around my neck by a silver chain. Krissy had on a lacey tank top with the perfect flowing skirt to match. Kate had on a dress that hung perfectly on her body. We loved how we looked in the clothes and I knew that it was pointless to have even tried them on; but then Krissy said something that had never even crossed our minds. Krissy whispered, “You guys, we should just take the clothes!” Coming from a very religious family, I knew that stealing was wrong, but at the time all I could think about was how much I wanted that shirt.
Standing is the dressing room the three of us began whispering different strategies of how we could take the clothes. “We can just put on the clothes and then put our own clothes over them!” Kate whispered. “I’ll just stuff these shirts in my purse.” I said with a low voice. Lucky for us there were no sensors on the shirts so we didn’t have to worry about any alarms going off when we left the store. I ripped the tags off the shirt and shoved it in my purse. Krissy kept the tank top on and slipped her own shirt over to hide it; then put the skirt in her purse. Kate did the same thing as Krissy. She ripped off the tags and put on her own shirt over the beautiful new piece of clothing. My stomach was in knots. Even though there were no sensors I was still so scared that we would get caught. We opened up the dressing room door and walked out. We took the escalator back down to the first floor and headed towards the exit into the mall. My heart was pounding. I had never done anything like that before and I didn’t know if we were going to get away with it. We approached the exit. We were out. We were safe. Suddenly a rush of excitement went through me. Krissy and Kate began laughing; I joined them. I couldn’t believe we had gotten away with it, but in the back of my mind I could feel the guilt. We decided that since the previous mischief had been so easy, we might as well go to Macy’s and see if we saw anything we liked.
We entered Macy’s and went directly to the juniors’ section. This was much different than earlier in the day. We weren’t just looking anymore. We were looking to conquer because now we knew that the clothes could be ours; or at least we thought. We began gathering different articles of clothing. At this point it didn’t seem like we were doing anything suspicious; so we felt safe. Once we had gotten several items we headed towards the dressing room. In the dressing room I put two shirts in my purse while Kate and Krissy put more shirts on underneath the clothes they already had on along with the stolen shirts from the store before. “Do you guys have everything you want?” Krissy asked. “Yeah, yeah let’s just get out of here!” Kate whispered as she walked towards the door. We were ready to leave and that’s when the terrible knotting feeling in my stomach began again. We opened the door and walked out. An older female who was standing in the dressing room followed us with her dark eyes. I figured I was just being paranoid. We drew near the exit and once again we made it out safe. After about ten seconds of being out of the store a lady came up to us and pulled out a badge. “Good afternoon girls. I’m an undercover working for Macy’s,” she said sternly. “I’m going to have to ask you to come with me.” At that moment my heart dropped. I had a huge lump in my throat and I desperately wished that I could take everything back.
The three of us followed the woman to the back of the store. She put Kate and I in a room together and put Krissy in a room next to us. I began crying and all I could think about was how disappointed my mom was going to be. I could barley handle it. I knew from the moment I put that first shirt in my bag that I was doing something wrong. The older woman from the dressing room came in, took our purses, and began pulling out the stolen clothes. She told us that if we were wearing anything to take it off because we were already in a lot of trouble. She started asking us questions; what our names were, how old we were, what our parent’s telephone numbers were and so many more questions that I can’t even remember because I was so scared and upset. After being interrogated they told us that they were going to call our parents. I felt absolutely horrible. Not only did I feel bad because I did something that I knew was wrong, but I knew that this would crush my parents. I come from a very religious family so situations such as this are a very big deal. Once the phone calls were made the undercover worker and the older woman came back into the room that Kate and I were sitting in. They told us that we were going to be fined for the clothes that we stole and that we weren’t allowed in that Macy’s for two years. When we were finally allowed to leave the undercover worker walked us out of the mall.
I called my mom when we got in my car and she said that we would talk when I got home. I dropped Krissy and Kate off at their houses and headed home. I walked in my front door and my parents were waiting for me in the living room. I started crying immediately and then tears filled my mom’s eyes. We sat in my living room for about an hour talking about the whole situation. The hardest part was that they weren’t even mad; they were just deeply disappointed in me. I had done something that was so out of character for me that it was going to take a long time for them to trust me again.
I was grounded for about two weeks. My spring break was completely ruined all because I thought I had the right to take something that wasn’t mine. It didn’t matter that I was grounded or that I didn’t get to have the spring break that I had hoped for. All that mattered was that I had let my parents down and I knew that I never wanted to hurt them again.

Kristi Genton