My Unforgettable Childhood Memories Essay Example

evening we decided to go out and do some shopping at Target then, later on, go to the movies. My friend was driving. We hadn’t gone far when we were pulled over by the police. The officer claimed that we were over speeding. The officer wanted to give us a ticket. But then, my friend being that convincing managed to talk us out of the ticket. We only got out with a warning. That was impressive. I had never managed to talk myself out of a speeding ticket before. Of course, I had tried twice but it hadn’t worked in either of the two speeding situations. My friend started boasting to me how he could talk out of anything. We laughed about it and even dared my friend to violate another law and talk us out of it. Little did I know how this was a bad idea.

So we arrived at Target. After picking up some food product we went to the clothes section. I hadn’t carried any jacket to my friend's place and I wanted to buy one. There was this leather jacket I loved so much. The problem was that the jacket was so expensive. Its price tag read, “$499.99”. I did not have such kind of money, at least not to spend that much on a single jacket. So I decided to go for a much cheaper option. But then, my friend said, “You don’t have to pay for it, you can have it for free”. At first, I thought that my friend wanted to pay it for me. Then it hit me, I was to steal it. “What!” I exclaimed. There

was no way I could do that. I wasn’t a thief. This was no game. We were not playing robbers and cops anymore. It was a real situation. If caught, I would be arrested by real cops and taken to jail.

I wasn’t ready to go to jail, not for a jacket at least. However, the more I looked at the jacket, the more I realized that I wanted it so bad. My friend told me that it was simple, “Just remove the tag and wear it and walk out with it. No one will know that you didn’t come in with it”. But then I was concerned. What if someone sees me? Or the security cameras capture me? Or worse still the alarm goes off on my way out? No, I wasn’t prepared to find out. I was able to overcome my desires; at least I thought so at the moment. Not until my friend offered to do it for me. I didn’t want my friend to do it. The risk was still there no matter the person doing it. However, my desire for the jacket was so much that in the end I agreed to it reluctantly after “assuring” me that we wouldn’t get caught and if caught, he could talk us out of it. We would pretend that he forgot to remove it after trying it out.

We went to the counter and paid for the other staffs and just as we walked out of the door, my worst fears were confirmed. The alarm went off. We were immediately stopped and searched by the security guards. I tried to look as confident as I

can but then I couldn’t. I was trembling. The guards did not know at first what had exactly made the alarm to go off. So they had to run all the staffs we had bought throw a computer. Everything looked fine. We had paid for “everything”. One of the guards said, “This is funny. Maybe the system has a problem and issued a false alarm”. They looked apologetic. They even apologized to us. We were just about to be allowed to leave when one of the guards looked at my friend and bluntly asked, “Is that your jacket”.

I started to tremble. One word came to my mind; “prison”. I didn’t want to go to prison. What would my parents say? And how would my friends react to the news? Should I deny that I had nothing to do with it and leave my friend in trouble? I had no answer to all of these questions. But then, my friend played it cool. He looked surprised, he claimed that he had no idea that he still had the jacket on. He said that he had only tried it on and that he had forgotten to take it off. He even claimed that he had a memory disorder; which was not true. But that did not explain why the price tag was off. They threatened to call cops on us.

My friend claimed that the tag might have fallen off. It was a tense moment for me. I was forced to go along with the story. I was scared to death. We were taken to the manager’s office. Of course, the manager did not buy the story. He

wanted to look at the security footage to see if the footage would confirm our story, or rather he wanted to prove to us that we were lying. As we looked at the monitor, I knew it was over. But then, to my relief, there were some blind spots in the security cameras view. The cameras did not cover the exact area where we had taken the jacket from. The manager looked disappointed. I was relieved a bit. At least they didn’t have any video evidence.

The manager didn’t want to take the matter any further. He took the jacket and allowed us to go. I was relieved. I was happy that I didn’t have to get arrested for stealing. I had heard stories and watched movies on how terrible prison was. I didn’t want to experience it. Most important, I didn’t want to disappoint my parents. We went back to my fiend's place. We never got to the movies. I was not in the mood of watching any movie. I had just escaped having a criminal record and I thought that the best way to spend the rest of the day was to stay indoors. I didn't want to get in any more trouble. It had been a long day. As I went to bed that night, I vividly reflected on that day’s events. We had managed to talk ourselves out of a speeding ticket and a shoplifting charge all in a single day. My desires for fancy jackets had almost landed me prison and a criminal record.