Dream of: 24 April 1983 "Stealing"

Louise and I had entered Marting's Department Store in Portsmouth. Louise walked to one part of the store while I went to the clothing department. I found a blue shirt and took it into a dressing room. I took off the sports jacket and white shirt I was wearing, put on the blue shirt and put my white shirt back on over the blue shirt. I was planning to steal the blue shirt.

I walked outside the dressing room around in the store for a little while and was thinking about leaving. Suddenly Crews (a law student) stepped up and looked at me. He was wearing a suit and I thought he probably worked for the store. He patted me on the chest and said, "How's your shirt fitting right there on your chest?"

I knew immediately he knew I had taken the blue shirt. But apparently he wasn't going to turn me in; I was quite thankful to him.

I had forgotten my sports jacket in the dressing room. I returned to the dressing room, took the blue shirt off and hung it on a hanger. As I did so, someone opened the curtain to the dressing room. Crews, Louise and seven or eight other store personnel, some of whom I knew, were standing in front of the dressing room. Louise obviously knew what had happened, but didn't seem very upset about it. I felt bad and said, "Look, my jacket was here all the time. Obviously I was going to come back."

I tried to talk my way out of it; but they apparently weren't going to do anything to me anyway and I was only wasting my breath.

Someone said, "Well, now what is it that we say when something like this happens?"

They all hollered in unison, "Disaster!"

Obviously other people in the store could hear what was said. I began thinking I had been nabbed once before stealing like that; I was going to have to stop stealing. I wanted to leave, but first I wanted to thank Crews for tipping me off that people in the store knew what I had been doing. I said something to him and he replied, "Well, you didn't get caught. Its as simple as that. You just didn't get caught."

I wanted to ask him what the law said and whether I would have had to have left the store with the merchandise or if they could have grabbed me in the store. But I just let it drop.

I noticed someone else had obviously been in the dressing room since I had left because several toys were lying around on the floor. I picked up a small, plastic, orange Halloween pumpkin which was about two centimeters in diameter. The pumpkin had a face cut in its front and was rather scary looking. I decided to keep it.

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