My 35 000$ shoplifting experience

This all kinda went down in 2000 or 2001 in Southern Finland.<br>It all began when I was starting to shoplift little things to show off and impress and get respect kinda deal in middle school.<br>I knew that my father had little metal detector at home. He had used it to find and forge and sharpen fish hooks. Thing had a pretty simple design. There kinda was a little box with battery and a 3-4 inch diameter round plate that had some metal inside, and 3-4 inch detector metal wire with some metal in the end and a 3-4inch long plastic handle.<br><br>I started to think that I could hook something behind the clothes I kinda was buying in the detector and then carry it outside. I got really good at it. I didn't do it every time I was in the store, but every time I got something and someone else got something with me. I even stole some small stuff like lighter kinda deal and changed the batteries to make it more sensitive. <br><br>It all went down like this: I would hold the detector in my hand and show it to the employee kinda deal, someone else would carry the stuff out and I would be behind after.<br><br>One time I got 2 leather jackets with me. That is when I thought that I had taken it too far. I probably could have kinda gotten away with it.<br><br>This went on for 35 000$ worth of stuff in 2-3 years. Kinda deal.<br><br>One day I got caught.<br>It was summer 2002-2003.<br>I had my cousin and his friends with me and we were in a mall. We were in this kinda fancy store that had some pretty cool stuff that we probably wouldn't have bought.<br><br>There was 3-4 employees in the store, and one of them was girl that I had something going on with. My cousin and his friends were hiding in the dressing room, and I got caught and they got away with 3 kinda deal denim shirts and 3 kinda 18"inch chain wallets. <br><br>When I got caught the employee said that he probably could have let me off with a warning, but I got caught by the boss himself.<br>It was 2pm on Tuesday and the stores and everything closed at 8pm and my hearing was at 6pm. 2pm-6pm I had to sit in a locked office with no phone, no food and no nothing. It was hell. I think I was 15 or 16 then.<br><br>He threatened me with 6 years in jail.<br>In the end I got 80 hours community service for 800 euros worth of little metal stuff.<br>And I had to pay 400 euros to the store so they would let me off with 3-4 denim shirts. <br><br>I ended up getting caught and in court 4 times. Once I got 1 year in jail, 2 times I got fines and one time I got community service, which was okay since it was in afternoons and I could still go to school.<br><br>I ended up getting caught and in court 7 times.<br>I did 3 months and 1 week in jail after getting caught.<br><br>But never got caught shoplifting again.