By LeeAnn Bay The 12-year-old entered the little grocery store. She walked up and down the aisles and finally stopped in front of the nacho cheese dip. I don't have any money, but I really want that dip, she thought. She quickly grabbed a can and slipped it into the front of her pants; her oversized shirt served as a shield. Her heart was racing. She felt like someone was watching her. Her brown eyes darted around the store. She approached the checkout line. She bought a candy bar and casually walked out of the store. She smirked--she knew something the cashier didn't know. Lyesha Lynch thought, "I've done something that not everyone does." Lyesha had started shoplifting random things she wanted such as dip, nuts or candy when she was in the sixth grade. She lived in the little town of Fernwood, Idaho, and didn't have much money. "I wanted something, and I thought I'd just take it," she said. One time Lyesha and a friend thought stealing a can of beer would be something new and exciting to do. She said, "I took a can of beer, which was really cold, and it was in my pants. It was really stupid because it turned out to be non-alcoholic." Dr. Larry Day, psychologist, family counselor and author said some people shoplift because they want something and have no moral restraints. Lyesha said she didn't know stealing was wrong, but she did know people didn't want her to do it. By the seventh grade, the candy snatching led to stealing cigarettes. Each morning before school, she stole three packs of cigarettes. Soon she was known around school for stealing, and classmates asked her for packs. "I gave it [cigarettes] to them. It made me a little more popular, which was cool," she said. When her mom heard that she was stealing cigarettes, her mom started buying packs for Lyesha so she wouldn't have to steal. But Lyesha continued to steal. She stopped smoking her sophomore year of high school, but she still stole cigarettes out of habit. "I would walk out of the store with three packs of cigarettes, and I didn't even want them," she said. She convinced others to steal with her. Stealing together felt great because she had an influence on her friends, and she gave her friends what she considered excitement and "joy." However, because inexperienced shoplifters are in greater danger of getting caught, stealing with them was scary. "Sometimes they were too scared, and I just did it for them," Lyesha said. For most people, motives behind shoplifting go beyond a simple desire for an item. A survey from the National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression said one-third of all shoplifters suffer from depression. Lyesha grew up in the midst of fighting and screaming parents and avoided home as much as possible. In the fourth grade, Lyesha began displaying symptoms of depression. Lyesha said she became addicted to the excitement and fake feeling of joy that came with shoplifting. She didn't know how else to deal with her depression. Lyesha wasn't diagnosed and treated for her depression until she was 16, a few years after she quit shoplifting. Bill Zalud, the editorial director at Security Magazine, as quoted by Bill O'Brian in the LA Times, said, "The typical shoplifter doesn't do it for the money; they do it for the rush." Lyesha can remember only one girl in her town, Daisy, who had strong moral values and didn't do anything bad like shoplifting. But she kept to herself and didn't say much to anyone. Lyesha described the attitudes of her peers other than Daisy: "It was cool to get bad grades. It wasn't popular to be intelligent or good." Some kids shook their heads at Lyesha but not necessarily because they thought she was doing wrong; shoplifting just was not their thing. These friends were part of an estimated 66 percent of kids who hang out with someone who shoplifts. And the National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression's research says 89 percent of kids know someone such as Lyesha who shoplifts. Lyesha said deep down she respected Daisy for not giving in to the crowd. "We were all thinking that we were going against the water. We're trying to be different. But the point was that we were going along with everyone else," Lyesha said. The owner of a small convenience store, Murphy's Market, said all a community needs is one troublemaker and the other kids will follow. Usually she deals with these kids by confronting their parents and letting them discipline their children. However, she thought a better solution to shoplifting would be taking kids to the police to scare them out of stealing again. Lyesha said she was skeptical of the police approach because she had friends who had been caught and kept on stealing. "They are so asleep. It doesn't matter if they go to the police station," Lyesha said. When a storekeeper told Lyesha's mom Lyesha was stealing, Lyesha felt the consequences of disrespect from the community. While in the store, people stared at her like hawks and watched her every move. However, the glaring eyes didn't cause her to stop shoplifting. For peers who want to help their friends stop shoplifting, counselor Byron Kehlar suggests that teens ask their friends questions about why they shoplift and try to stimulate them to search their lives for possible motives. He said most teens know stealing is wrong, so instead of condemning, try to understand their motivation. Dr. Day suggested asking a friend "What made you steal that?" rather than "Why did you do that?" because the word "why" sounds accusative. Lyesha believes the most effective way to help teens who are struggling with shoplifting is to confront them. Dr. Day said teens desire acceptance from their peers. So teens whose friends shoplift need to confront them and not applaud their actions. Dr. Day said he shoplifted as a youth and if someone had confronted him, he would have "melted." Many times the thrill of shoplifting is the secrecy of doing it, so confronting a friend can help stop the stealing. If the shoplifting continues, friends have to decide whether to tell a parent, an authority or turn in their friend. Lyesha said friends need to be willing to end a relationship just to show their friends that they are serious. "Love them but hold them accountable," Lyesha said. When she was 13, Lyesha started hanging out at youth group because she had nothing else to do. "I would actually come to youth group stoned, or even get stoned at youth group," she said. When time for summer camp came around, Lyesha went with the youth group. During her second year at camp, Lyesha accepted Jesus as her savior and his forgiveness for all she had done. The shoplifting finally stopped. Lyesha slowly replaced the artificial joy and excitement of shoplifting with true happiness and love from her savior, Jesus. LeeAnn Bay is a Journalism Student at Multnomah Bible College

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