I Stole thousands of dollars in product from every headshop in my area, and was never caught

**TL;DR:** I used to work at a head shop and for 10-12 years I stole thousands of dollars in products from every head shop I worked at and never got caught. I also found some weird shit in my time working at these shops.<br><br>&#x200B;<br><br>Hey guys, Not sure if this has been posted before or not, but here is my story of how i used to steal thousands of dollars of product from every head shop I worked at.<br><br> So back in 2000 I started working at a head shop in my home town. It was a very quick interview and I was hired on the spot. I thought working at a head shop was gonna be the coolest thing ever, and for a young teenage stoner like myself, it was a dream come true. <br><br>Now for this story and any other head shop related stories I might post in the future, I will call this shop "Smoke and Sewing" <br><br>Smoke and sew was a pretty small shop, we sold a bunch of random stuff. Bongs, pipes, incense, tapestries, posters, tons of sewing supplies and this was also when the decline of tobacco pipes was starting to happen, so we also got a lot of random items in from distributors that were trying to clear out old inventory. <br><br>One of the first things I noticed was that there were no cameras in the store. We had a trey in the back that had all the cash, receipts, and employee information in it. The owners had a huge safe that had all the real important shit in it. And we had a display case that had the expensive items in it. Now at the time you could buy bongs that were 6-8 feet tall, multi colored, multi chambered, and they would sell for upwards of 2 grand a piece. There was really no way of knowing if inventory was correct in the shop, as there was no computer or any way to track anything. <br><br>After my first few weeks of working there, I started to realize that I could steal from the shop by just hiding shit in a duffel bag and walking out. I don't think I ever really took anything big at first, maybe a few packs of incense a day, a poster here and there. But i quickly started to take more, and I knew that if I ever go caught that I would be fucked, so I played it safe. This went on for almost two years and I ended up taking a lot more when I had keys to the building. When I had the keys is when I started taking the expensive items. I never personally bought any pipes for myself, I had a few that i stole that i would use, but I had a plethora of them to take back to my friends and swap out for other drugs and other product that I could resell. This went on for several years, and I never got caught. I never had a second job, so I was never late or called off from work. I would take 2 weeks off at a time to go on road trips (we were only allowed to take one week a year off). I had a huge stash of blacklights, posters, and incense, enough to last me and all my friends a life time ( I still have some today). <br><br>When I left Smoke and Sew, I worked at 4 other head shops. One was a real good experience, and I really didn't steal from it. The other 3 I took a fuck ton from and even took some of the cash. I never had a drug problem, but I had an asshole problem. I just liked doing it for the sake of doing it. <br><br>I worked at one shop for 2 years, and I took a bong home almost everyday. I would bring it back a week later, and they would put it back on the shelf and sell it. I would do this over and over and over. I even had one pipe that I would take home 2-3 times a month. It was a really cool looking one and I would just give it to my friends to smoke out of at parties. ( I never sold any of the product I Stole, I really just did it cause I could)<br><br>I would take the display case pipes, and swap them with other ones that I had taken or ones that I had already purchased from other shops. I would do this for months, and sometimes even bring back pipes I had stolen months ago to swap back out with new ones. I even would purchase new items from other shops, swap the labels, and then put them in the case. They never really had any idea about it, and would even put price tags on the shit I had purchased and try to sell it to customers. <br><br>One time, I was drunk and I had just gotten off work. I drove back to the shop I worked at, cracked the window of the front door and unlocked it, snatched 5-6 pipes out of the display case and ran across the parking lot to my car. I was drunk, and dropped every pipe on the ground at least once. It was chaotic, and I woke up the next morning in a panic, scared that I had gotten caught. I went into work the next day, and the owners son was working. He was a younger kid, and he had no idea what he was doing. He was running the shop by himself, and he took inventory and he had no idea that anything was missing. I stole so much shit, and I don't think I was ever caught. Sometimes I would bring shit back, and they would notice it and ask me if I sold it the day before because it had a price tag missing. I didn't steal thousands of dollars in product, but i probably stole at least enough to buy a new car outright. <br><br>I also found some weird shit while working at these shops. I found a note that a distributor had written a note to the owner of one of the shops i worked at, saying that he would stop selling him product if he kept trying to have sex with his wife. I also found a note that the owner of the shop had written to the distributor, apologizing for trying to have sex with his wife. <br><br>One owners kid would come in and work at the shop and would take all of the pipes down and polish them until they shined. ( I stole from his dad so much, and I don't think he ever knew)<br><br>I found a journal that one of the owners daughters kept in the shop. It was filled with pages and pages of her writing "Why can't I be a boy" (This was a real head scratcher for me)<br><br>I stole so much shit over the years. Thousands and thousands of dollars. I really didn't ever profit from it, but I took a lot. I Stole black lights, posters, incense, tapestries, pipes, bongs, and even sewing supplies. <br><br>As of today I still know of 2 head shops in the area that I have taken product from that are still in business. <br><br>**EDIT:** Wow, this blew up. I also want to add that I don't think i ever really took anything that helped hurt the business. The owners really didn't care that I was stealing, I really dont think they ever knew. I don't think i ever took anything that they couldn't live without. The owners really didn't know how to run a business. They were from another country and had no workers comp, no benefits, nothing. I was paid in cash, and I was expected to work even when I was sick. I was paid .25 cents above minimum wage, which is shitty even for a teenager to make. The owners were also asshole pricks, and they treated all the employees like shit. There is more to the story, but that's for a different time. <br><br>**EDIT 2:** I think some people in here thought that I was talking about thousands of dollars a day, I stole thousands of dollars over 10-12 years, not all at once. Stole 5-10 dollars a day. It was enough that me and all my friends could smoke for free, and I even took some to other cities and states that i would visit.