Miracle and a misdemeanor

We were on our way home from Lowe's, (where a miracle and a misdemeanor happened) the miracle being we walked out of there without spending a penny. 

The Misdemeanor 

Z says, "Hey mom, did you know that David Reutimann is driving the #44 car now? Dale Jarrett retired after the last race and now David is going to drive the 44 car.  

I was smiling away in the front seat wondering where my little Nascar junkie picked up that tidbit of information.  "No, I hadn't heard that."  I said, "When did you hear that?"  I turned to look around at him and realized he is reading a magazine.  

I said, "Where did you get that?"

He said, "Lowes."

I said, "Let me see that."  He immediately bursts into tears and I looked at the front cover and sure enough there is a price there.  $3.99.

"Z, you can not just walk out of the store with something.  You have to pay for it."  "You could go to jail for that."  (Way to go mom!)  

More tears, lots more tears. 

Now here is where my parenting skills could have been better.  Okay they could have been better when I told him he could go to jail.  But who is paying attention to that.

I know that we should have turned around, gone back to the store and made him give it back and apologize, but we were meeting some friends and wouldn't make it if we went back.  

So I told him, dad would take it back and that he would have to pay for it out of his own money.  

There really was more explaining in there, but that is just boring and I sure you all know the perils of shoplifting.  

This reminds me of an incident I witnessed about a year ago.

I was siting in my van, way out in the Target parking lot, when 2 police cars converged on a woman who was just causally walking past my car.  They took off her coat, talked to her  then handcuffed her and put her in the car.

While they were questioning her, she just kept crying please don't tell my family, please, please.  

I am not sure I will ever forget that.  The way she looked and the way she sounded.  I wondered why she was in the situation that she was in.  She was probably my age.  I really have such a hard time seeing women as common criminals even though I know that they can be.   It upset me just thinking about what made her do that.