I stole something every time I went to the grocery store in high school. I finally got caught.

It was my first year of high school and a group of friends I knew were shoplifting. They were braver than I was. One day they convinced me to try and I got away with it. Then it happened every time I went to the grocery store. Sometimes I would only take a piece of candy. Sometimes I would take a shirt.<br><br>Fast forward a few years and I stopped shoplifting but I continued to go to church twice a week (I go to a Mormon church and we don’t drink coffee or beer, maybe that’s why we steal). One day I was walking out of the grocery store and a police officer grabbed me and pulled me into a back room. A few minutes later a mall cop came in with a huge smile on his face. He said “This is the girl that has been stealing for years.” <br><br>At that moment I thought my world had come to an end. I started crying and I couldn’t stop. The mall cop talked to the police officer and said he was going to give me a ticket and not take me to jail. I said ok and then he said I had to call my parents to come and pick me up. I was so ashamed that I couldn’t do it. I kept crying and calling my parents and hanging up. They thought something was wrong with the phone so they kept calling. After 45 minutes of a police officer and 2 mall cops waiting for me to call my parents, I finally did it. My mom answered and I told her I got a ticket for shoplifting and that a police officer was going to drive me to the police station.<br><br>I was so ashamed. I had never had a ticket before because I never broke the rules. I had stolen a carton of eggs, a box of mac and cheese, and a bottle of sparkling juice. I sometimes wonder if they thought that’s all I ate because all I had was a little juice, eggs, and mac and cheese. Walking through the store in handcuffs was so embarrassing because I had been there so many times before. I got to the police station and my dad came to the door in his pajamas. The police officer drove me to the car and my dad didn’t say a word until we got home. I was given a misdemeanor ticket and had to go to court. I also had to pay a $400 fine.<br><br>After that day, I never shoplifted again. My parents made me tell them the truth about why I got a ticket. My dad was very disappointed but he forgave me. My mom didn’t forgive me for a while but now she is over it. I’m still a Mormon and I still go to church. I still feel ashamed sometimes but I learned from my mistake.