No? Well I did, almost.
I have never been so scared.
Now I'm trusting you all because this is truth time. I think we all make mistakes in life, and we grown and learn from them. I can tell you this was in the top 5 the dumbest mistakes I've ever made in my entire life.
I think we can agree if you are a member of a sorority, attended college, or just live life in general you've probably made some questionable decisions.
Faces are covered to protect the innocent :-).
I mean, a lot of questionable decisions. Like things not pictured in these pub crawl pictures and Big/Little night pictures. . .
Maybe not. Maybe you're responsible. . .
Honestly, I didn't even make that many wild decisions. I had my RA job, was involved in a lot of different organizations, and so forth. For some reason, this night, I just had this terrible idea. . .
Anyway, we had philanthropy weeks in undergrad. Each fraternity and sorority had a week where they hosted different events and competitions to raise money for their organization's philanthropy. In the fraternity weeks, the sororities would compete and vice versa. They were a ton of fun but also SUPER competitive. When it was your organization's week you could sign up to "coach" a team from one of the fraternities. I had coached one team before, then my senior year, I decided to coach a team again, and got to coach our Sigma Chi team. One of the events our sorority held was a chariot race. The teams had to make a chariot and race using it. We were struggling to come up with something so my fellow coaches and I decided "oh, let's borrow a shopping cart from a store parking lot, and then return it the next day."
Key mistake number one.
So two of my sorority sisters who were my fellow coaches and I decided to take my teal Ford Taurus hatchback to the Kmart parking lot and grab a shopping cart. We waited until it was dark so we wouldn't be caught. We successfully got it in the car, rearranged the seating, and pulled out of the parking lot. I started driving down the road when I realized a cop was following me. I decided to take a turn and try to avoid the officer.
Key mistake number two.
At this point we were all super paranoid. We were wondering if we could be arrested, where do we go? Is he even actually following us? Can you just slowly out drive the cop? I realized when I turned right that I had made an amateur mistake. I had turned my headlights off in the Kmart parking lot in order to be less noticeable when we were stealing the cart. When I pulled out of the parking lot, I forgot to turn my lights back ON because the area we were in was so well lit.
Key mistake number three.
The cop turned his lights on and pulled us over. We were FREAKING out. The officer came over to the car. We had the typical exchange asking for license and registration. The officer asked if we knew why he pulled us over. I told him I just realized our lights were off. I said we had left Sheetz and the lights were so bright in the parking lot I didn't realize my lights were off. I don't know how I came up with that BS story so fast. He asked why we turned off the road over to this dead end street (whoops, poor street choice). I explained that we were looking for a safe place to turn around to go back to Sheetz because we forgot to get a milkshake for our friend. Mind you, he still hasn't mentioned the kart in the back of the car, but low and behold, now he did.
He asked where the cart came from. I told him Kmart, we were going to borrow it for the day, then return it. Also, at this point one of my friends is sitting backwards, holding the cart, without a seat belt. Then he dropped the bomb "Have you ever heard of petty larceny?" OH SHIT. I told him we were just borrowing it profusely and started to get upset but somehow stayed calm and sweet on the outside. Seriously, someone was watching over me this day. He went back to his car. While he was there I was freaking out thinking "I just got in to grad school, my life is over." My stomach was in knots. I felt like I was going to throw up. My friends were freaking out. I texted my Little who was also our sorority president at the time so if I went to jail at least she could help me or know where the hell I was. After what seemed like an eternity the officer came back to the car and said:
"Okay, if you return the cart to Kmart and go back to campus, I wont' give you a ticket or arrest you. If you want to borrow the cart, why don't you ask Kmart in the morning?"
I have NEVER been so relieved. I thanked him a million times. We took the cart back IMMEDIATELY and went straight back. I really thought I was going to jail for stealing that cart. We all did. In case you were wondering, somehow our team came up with something for the chariot race.
Things I learned:
1. When trying to do something secretive, make sure you're inconspicuous and following the rules.
2. Officers can be nice and don't always give you tickets
3. Sometimes the worst situations turn out okay
4. Don't commit crimes
5. Bad life choices are a part of college and life in general
What a lesson learned, but it makes for great stories!
I hope you don't judge me too much now and that you got a good laugh out of the story.
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