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.