I am a kleptomaniac and i can’t stop…
I (18F) started shoplifting in 2021, I was a freshman in high school and i didn’t have a job. I wasn’t necessarily poor but my family kind of always struggled with money, so i never wanted to ask for anything extra i didn’t “need”, Anyways it started when me and my sister went to walmart after school to do some grocery shopping for our parents. I always liked to look around at the makeup and the body care stuff just to see if anything good was on clearance or anything was cheap and i could afford to slip it into the cart without anyone noticing. I ended up finding an eyeliner on sale for 4 dollars, so i had asked my sister if i could get it because the one my mom had given me was dried out. She quickly said no and although it was annoying i understood, fast forward i completely forgot to put it back on the shelf and walked out with it in my hand, But the detector thing (no clue what it’s called) never went off, i realized i had it in my hand once we got in the car and my heart sank a sense of adrenaline and adventure filled me, i slipped it into my school bag hoping no one would notice me. The whole way home it’s all i could think about but i ended up getting away with it and not telling anyone. Fast forward about 2 weeks later we went back to that walmart and no one said anything i don’t know if they were keeping tabs on me or something but little 15 year old me didn’t really care because i could get away with getting anything i wanted for free. Every opportunity i got to steal i would. Mascaras, eyeshadow, body wash, lotion, clothes, perfumes literally anything extra you could think of i stole. I ended up calculating everything about a year later and the total was over 4,000 dollars of cheap items. I knew i had a problem but i knew i couldn’t stop. We ended up moving my junior year when i was 17 so i got a fresh start in a big city. So i started stealing from more places since i got my license, everyday i would go to big corporations and steal. It felt so freeing and so right even though it was so wrong. I ended up getting a job and that’s when i told myself i would stop. I was working at a small tea place where i didn’t make much money but the shifts worked well with school. But i couldn’t stop. It didn’t change much just stealing the same type of things even though i definitely had enough. My mom only questioned me once but i had said my friends who worked got me some stuff and now i had a job i could just blame it on that, but my mom never really came into my room so it wasn’t a big deal. Recently i turned 18 so ive been getting scared to steal again but im scared that i cant stop.
Posted Sep 3, 2025, 6:15 PM UTC