I stole thousands of dollars in change over 2 years working at a McDonalds

When I was 16 I got a job at McDonald’s. I was a crew member and the managers happily trained me and trusted me with all the ins and outs of the restaurant. I did my job really well and was often trusted to do a lot of the work that the managers did like counting out the tills, giving change at the window, opening and closing the restaurant, taking out the trash, etc. <br><br>I never really liked the job and it was the first real job I had. I was very friendly to the customers, but I really didn’t like getting orders right. I was very lazy and didn’t put a lot of effort into getting orders out. My managers knew I was a bit lazy, but I was also very charming and could talk my way out of any confrontation or punishment. I was also a really good liar. <br><br>McDonald’s was very expensive to eat at. A large meal was $6-$7. A small fry was $1.50 and large fry was $2.50. A big mac was $3 or $4. A soda was $1 for a small, $1.50 for a medium, and $2 for a large. Most people paid in $5, $10, and $20 bills. <br><br>I was often tasked with taking change out at the end of the night. This is where we literally took out empty trash bags full of coins and dollar bills and put them in the safe. <br><br>Sometimes, if I was working in the kitchen or at the register, I would forget to give a customer their change. I am not sure if was because I was lazy and didn’t feel like walking a few feet to the drive thru window to give them their change, but I would often forget or pretend to forget. I would put the change in the register and then give it to myself when I took out the change. <br><br>I would also work at the register and any time someone paid with $20 bill, I would forget to put the $20 bill in the register. This was back in the day when card transactions were a lot slower and more torturous than it is now. I would do this often, but sometimes I would get caught. I would be tasked with closing out the tills and my till would be $20, $50, or $100 shorter than I should have. That is to say, if I should have had $500 in my till, I would only have $400. This was called a cash shortage. It was pretty big deal if you were short $60-$100 as this usually meant you stole the money. It was impossible for you to miscount by $60 at the end of a shift. <br><br>But since I was so good at my job, I would only have a cash shortage once every month or two. And even then, it was only for $20. I would just apologize and it would be written on my record. Nothing would really happen. <br><br>I continued doing this for two years until I quit. <br><br>I probably stole $5,000-$6,000 and nothing ever really happened. I was so charming and hard working, that if I was caught, my managers would have felt bad and let it go because they were so fond of me.