to catch a thief

("how dare you accuse me of stealing?")

((uh...because you stole?))







there is a line we draw in our mind. a line that is formed/molded/defined in any number of ways. those ways include our upbringing. literal black and white laws of our school, city, county, state and country. the bible. what we see on tv. the music we listen to. the friends we hold dear. etc. etc. etc. on one side of that line is right. on the other side of that line is wrong. every one of us, each and every individual on this planet that is as unique as a snowflake, have different translations of right and wrong. each of us have priorities unique to our own person that allow us to rationalize things some would see as wrong as ok. and that brings us to last thursday.

bending the rules is a time-honored tradition in every aspect of life. the idea of "if you aren't bending the rules, you aren't trying hard enough" has almost become cliche'. old hat. a given. acceptable as the norm. but why? i understand that society has (and must) evolved. i understand that with that evolution, there has and will be "rules" that need to be updated, changed even, to fit the current time and culture. but with those changes, some things will always stay the same. one of those things is stealing. if something is not yours, no matter what you think "the world owes me", you cannot take it. it is not right or acceptable to sell stolen merchandise to fellow co-workers to make a profit for yourself. it is not cool to haggle male customers (let's play like the "hypothetical" person i have in my head is female) for their extra change in exchange for your fake phone number. it is not passable to claim two dependents on your federal tax return and reap the financial benefits while you are a hard-working, single-mother of none. and it's not fair for "someone" to bring merchandise taken from a psp and return it at my store for a full-price refund when you didn't pay for it in the first place. because the last straw was the one that i had some personal control over, it just so happened to break my proverbial camel's back.

"how dare you accuse me of stealing, kevin?????"

"you know me!!! how dare you accuse me of stealing????"

i didn't really accuse anyone of stealing. i just called into question that the product returned was a) returned in it's original plastic, plastic that is not used in any psp merchandising, b) the "person" in question did not have "her" receipt and c) "she" had just left "her" store a half-hour earlier/claimed that "she" didn't want to drive back to "her" store to return it/had the product in "her" possession in the plastic for a over a month and thursday was the day "she" "needed" to return it/...at our store. long story short, my boss got involved, the "person" in question was confronted with it and was asked to provide proof of purchase and made "her" way to our store to go apeshit on me.

it's funny how the back and forth ultimately went. i, calmly, asked "her" to explain why "she" was upset. "she", in a ferocious, obscenity laced tirade that even made me proud, could not calmly explain anything. "she" was upset that i had made it an "issue". i mean, why wouldn't i trust "her"? if someone's right/wrong governor was so fucked in their head that they thought it was fine to steal from the government, in my mind, stealing from your employer surely was acceptable too. the hissy-fit ended with "her" telling me that "if i lose my job over this, kevin, i swear to god. it's me and you. it's me and you." now, the "it's me and you" and it's intent is, obviously, debatable. from my end, i didn't get the impression that "she" was talking about going out to lunch and talking things through. but i've seen boyz 'n the hood enough times that it worried me about walking through any narrowly lit alleys for a while.

and then caroline came later that night. and this little dramatic episode felt a lot less important. i told my boss before i drove home thursday that i wasn't sorry for what had happened. i didn't want any apologies for having been berated with language that might have made more of an impact if i weren't an expert in their use. what i was sorry for was that "she", at least as of thursday afternoon, was the one that thought "she" had been done wrong. that "her" life situation was in poor enough shape that stealing had become a natural and acceptable means to an end. if "she" had needed 73 bucks that day, i would have written her a check. but instead she made a bed that slept "her" looking for a new job.

work last thursday was pretty easy for me. i just did my job. i followed the rules. enforced a couple that needed to be enforced. but at issue here is not that an employee stole and got caught. it's that they thought stealing was ok. it's that their right/wrong line in their head had been kicked by the mule that is life and they now stared at the world cross-eyed.

i don't believe that we are born bad. i believe that we are born into a world that needs us to make choices. i believe that we are bred by a god that allows us to make those choices. some would call that a fallen world. i call it grace. and by grace, i don't think stealing is ok. or other "bad" things. and i thank god for that. in that same breath, though, i wonder what my role is to the cross-eyed.

i don't really understand how i came to where i am today, therefore i am unfit in many ways to lead. and so i choose to lead, not by command, but by example and hope that, also by grace, god's will leads my actions. the world is not fallen, people, but there are parts of it that are broken.

here's to fixing them.