Fired on my way to Jail

kiddieprisonbonehead submitted 520 days ago

This is a long one, bear with me.

Dateline is 1977. I was in a foster home in Monterey, CA and I was as irresponsible as a teenager (under 18) could be. So I tried to get some responsibility and got a job at a now defunct company called "Channel 100" (they are long gone along with their parent company). They did a local pay TV channel which had to be "broadcast" from local VCR's (VTR's) at the cable company itself. What I did was operate the VCR/VTR's to show the movies. Let me tell you, I know virtally EVERY scene from movies like Godfather II, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest and Mohagany to name a couple. I saw them like 100 times when I worked there!

Well, I was already in the foster home for being in previous trouble with the police, and well, I hated working anyway *and* watching the same movies over and over again! And I *had* to watch because they were usually split up over 2 to 3 tapes, and I had to "roll" the tapes at the precise times. So I decided to kill time by doing what I did best, which was stealing cars at the time. AND I used my work as the base of operations.

Warning: Major Bone-Head-ed-ness coming up ...

So, I worked the late shift, and the cable equipment (called a "head-end", which is aptly named for this story) was located in Seaside, the next town to Monetrey. Also in Seaside, there was a sizable "auto row" of car dealers. So I would pop in a tape, note the time on my watch, and then run down to the auto row to snag a car for the night (very easy -- this is the 70's! Car locks were picked with a hangar and an Afro Rake [Google that!]). Also near by was a telephone company (Ma Bell) storage yard where telephone installers were staged at. One night as I passed by, the stupid front door was unlocked and I snagged a 1976 Ford Pinto with a mobile phone inside! Yes kiddies, this was waaaay before cell phones, and so a "mobile phone" in a car might as well have been a brick of gold.

But I *tried* to be responsible by making it back to the tape machines in time to change tapes. And then at the end of the night shift (1am), I would promptly lock up and then take my "new" car and take off (usually to San Francisco, a 2 hour drive -- to visit friends).

There's much more to this, but I am trying to keep it short and on-topic.

So there I am, driving the Pinto in broad daylight (I've had the car for almost a week) and I see a cop behind me. I know he is checking the license plate on his radio, and I know I am busted. So while he is waiting for backup, I pick up the phone to call work to say -- ahem -- "I won't be making it in today, sorry" just as cop flashes his red lights.

Well, a couple of days later (after I have hit the local paper *and* the TV news), the foster parents come by to Juvenile Hall (kiddie jail) and inform me I was fired for "making work the base of operations for an auto theft ring" as the news depicted me as.

p.s... I spent almost a year in the California Youth Authority (kiddie prison) for that stunt. But been clean ever since :)