Orignial publish date: Saturday night, November 20, 2010
How ironic, I was posting the old articles I wrote back in the day when I was first contemplating writing a blog, thinking, “Wow, my daughter and I have come such a long way!” She’d doing great and we’ve been getting along like I’ve always dreamed we could. I signed out of the dashboard, and within ten minutes there was a call from the police.
Long story short, I had to go to Wal-Mart, where they had arrested my daughter for shoplifting toothpaste, a toothbrush, and some makeup. It was exactly 70 cents under the amount required to put her in jail. The security people saw her come in with a flat shoulder bag, so she was immediately considered suspicious. Lo and behold, that same bag became nice and thick, and they watched her bypass the register and walk out the door.
By the time I got to the store, she had been there for quite a while, being treated no differently than any other low-life shoplifter. The security guy was waiting for me, and took me into the holding room where I saw my daughter crying tears of shame–in handcuffs. Handcuffs!! I couldn’t help it when I said, “I’m so ashamed. Disgusted and ashamed.”
I didn’t think it could get worse, but it did, it did. The police officer told me that when he asked her for identification, she gave him a fake ID (that she said she “found”), and when they searched her car, there was a marijuana pipe and bags with pot residue in them, PLUS as a bonus, the car reeked of pot smoke. So she has criminal charges for the fake ID and the pot paraphernalia, and civil charges for the shoplifting.
I asked why they didn’t arrest her and take her to the jail with the prostitutes and other losers? The Wal-Mart people said I was lucky to have had this officer come or else she would have. I said, “Lucky? They keep letting her get away with stuff. She’s been caught for violating curfew. Why do I have to keep taking her home? I’m a big supporter of law enforcement and if you had taken her to jail, that’s exactly where she’d stay.”
The Wal-Mart people explained that the restitution could be up to $1,000. I told my daughter that she’d be getting a second job because I wasn’t going to pay her fine this time. She was crying the whole time with her head down. I just don’t understand why she’d steal freakin’ toothpaste when we have (and I counted) seven tubes of it at home. More was said back and forth, but it doesn’t even matter what. There was nothing positive.
She came home, not much talking, some apologizing, and a shameful walk to her room to go to sleep.