It doesn’t happen often, but more than Cathy or I would be comfortable admitting: we walk out of a store to find something in Kate’s hand or Luke’s pocket that we didn’t pay for. Their shoplifting has always existed at a fairly constant rate. The only reasons it seems worse now are that they are adults and Cathy and I are of an age at which–depending on what the item is and when/how we find it–our first question now is “Did I buy that?” more often than “Luke/Kate, what did you do?”
Both do seem to understand in a general way that it takes green money or at least a piece of wallet plastic before we can walk off with what used to be the store’s and now is ours. But I guess sometimes the autistic heart wants what it wants. They don’t seem to go at it with any premeditation or even intent. To paraphrase former President Clinton, it depends on what your definition of shoplifting is.
Everyone's Autistic 