At 17, I had already quit school and was doing it online. I had been to the psych ward and stayed a week. I was smoking cigarretes and weed occasionally, and was drinking. I had one friend my age and one that was two years older. The friend that was two years older was actually living with us. This was after my parents divorced so my Mom, Grandma, and I were living in a rental house.

My two friends talked and came up with a plan. The friend my age worked at a department store. My older friend and I were going to go to the store on my 17th birthday and pretend we were checking out with a bunch of clothes and then walk out with them in bags. Viola, we would have new clothes and my mom wouldn’t feel bad about not being able to get me much for my birthday. What could go wrong, right? Well… let me tell you.

So, unbenownst to me, the store had a policy about not ringing up your friends. It’s now obvious to me why but I didn’t know this ahead of time.

Anyways, as soon as we walked out with our bags of clothes, the manager went to check the register my friend was working and saw that she hadn’t rung up any of our stuff.

Here I am driving with my friend in the car and we’re looking forward to getting home and hanging up our clothes when my phone rings. My heart drops into my stomach when I see that it’s my friend from the store. I pull over and answer the phone. She said, “You have to come back. They know I didn’t ring up anything. You have to bring all the stuff back.”

When I tell you I turned white as a ghost and I felt nauseous, I really mean it. I had never been in trouble like this before and I had no clue what to expect.

We went back to the store and the manager was waiting on us. She took the bags and told us to follow her to the office where my friend was. As she called the police, tears were streaming down my face and it was hard to breathe.

Unfortunately, we had to do the walk of shame out the front door, handcuffed in the front (thankfully). My face was red and my eyes were swollen from crying. The friend my age and I were put in the back of the same cop car and were driven to the police station. Since my other friend was over 18, she rode in a car by herself.

As soon as we got to the police station, we were finger printed and then taken into an office. I begged the police to call my Mom to come get me even though my Dad lived a lot closer because I knew he was going to flip out. They called my Mom anyways since I was living with her.

Luckily, since it was my first (and last) time getting into trouble, they dropped it down to a misdemeanor. I had to write an apology letter to the manager of the store, do 20 hours of community service, and agree to stay out of the store until I was 21. I never set foot in the store again.

I called my dad after getting out of the police station to tell him what had happened. We lived in a small town, remember? I knew he would hear about it so I wanted him to hear it from me first. I was crying as I told him and he started yelling, screaming, and cusssing at me. I became so overwhelmed that I hung up the phone. It would be awhile before we talked again.

Happy freaking 17th birthday, you shoplifter!

Have you ever been in a situation that made you feel shameful? Share in the comments below.