I thought that there had to be a "criminal store" where one could buy burglar masks and those striped sweaters burglars were portrayed as wearing, guns, glass cutters, etc. I asked my dad where criminals got their guns. He said, "on the steet". I knew that meant OUR street, so I was looking out for handguns scattered in the gutter. He also explaned on said street is where they have to buy silencers for the guns too - because silencers are illegal. This was doubly confusing becasue shooting people in general seemed illegal.

tracy

When I was really little I used to believe that kidnappers were people who took you from the sidewalk when you were alone and threw you in a crib and forced you to sleep/take a nap.

I take everything literally

When I was little Mike Tyson was on trial for rape, and everyone talked about it all the time. So I asked my grandma what rape was and she got all uncomfortable and said "um, to hurt someone and take their things". so later that day my cousin tried to take my toy boxing gloves and i yelled "I'm gonna rape you!". he cracked up and no one talked to me for a couple hours.

USA steel

In our town the slang name for police vans was 'meat wagons'. For an embarrassingly long time I believed that they actually carted off criminals in a butcher's van along with the legs of lamb and stuff.

Emma

When I was little my friend moved away and gave me her shovel. I somehow got it into my head that I had stolen it and cryed for an hour because I thought I'd go to jail.
And my lovely brother told me I probably would.

Kitty

I used to believe that there was only one law at a time, and that they changed the law once a year to something else. So, one year you might have to wear your seatbelt, the next year it would be against the law to steal things.

Not a bad idea, how simple would that make things?

Gerard McGarry

I used to have a black and white striped shirt I was terrified to wear, because in cartoons, all prisoners wore black and white shirts.

I figured if I wore it and a policeman saw it, he'd think I'd have escaped from prison and would make me go back.

I honestly was terrified to wear it to school or anything.

Anon

I used to believe that if someone stole the keys to your house, they'd get to keep your house and everything in it.

Anon

when I was little I use to believe that when a criminal got a multiple life sentence it meant that they would have to serve another term in their next life.

Eric V.

When I was about 7, I thought that all robbers could be easily recognized by their thuggish appearance, broken noses, 5:00 shadow and black-and-white horizontally-striped shirts. Once my brother and I got toy rubber bats (as in flying mammals), and we walked around the block looking for robbers. The idea was to shake the bats in their faces and scare them away. We didn't find any. What a boring neighborhood.

Nicholas Dollak

I was only 3 or 4 when the OJ Simpson trials were going on. When my parents were talking about it, I started crying because I thought they meant our orange juice got arrested!

Danni

I used to be terrified of robbers breaking into our house. I used to get in trouble because I wouldn't close my eyes during prayers at bed time. I was watching out for robbers! I thought that was the perfect opportunity to rob us, when we all had our eyes closed!

It didn't help that our bored neighbor boys were peeping toms, and I would see them looking in the windows!

me again

i used to believe that when you sleep you had to cover your whole body. and if you didnt a robber would come in and cut off whatever part of your body was showing. sometimes i left my hair out hoping i could get just a haircut

tommy

I once thought, when I was three I think, that people would steal cars by just picking them up and running away! I had a little image in my head of a blond guy running up to our car, picking it up (as if it were only 5 lbs,) and running away! This made me wonder why millions of cars don't get stolen every day

Peter

When my little sister was about four and was obsessed with all things girly, she used to think it was against the law for a girl not to wear a dress. I was a tomboy and she threatened to call the cops whenever I wore jeans.

Hope

I used to be really paranoid about robbers breaking into our house when I was younger....

So my grand plan to thwart the criminals was to pretend to be a robber too - by dressing all in black, with a black stripy jumper, and a eye mask and a sack that had 'Swag' printed on it. Then I could go to the robbers hideout with them, and get all our stuff back.

My parents gently dissuaded me, saying that we didn't need any extra security, and it would be very dangerous for me.

Probably just as well - I would have looked more like 'Hamburglar' (remember him?!) than a robber! In fact, that's probably where I got the idea from!!

Sarzi

I believed that burglars ate soap & lipstick

Karen

i could never understand why all countries were trying to attract tourists: who would want to have all that bombing and kidnapping? i imagined all this evil in the disguise of sunburned people in shorts wearing too large sunglasses.

jankai

When I was little, I thought every family had its own lawyer because people said "I'll contact MY lawyer" or "I'll have MY lawyer look it over." After all, we had OUR house, MY OWN bike, etc., that belonged to us/me exclusively. Only I couldn't figure out where the lawyer was kept or how each family could afford one.

Robbie

When I was little, I used to believe that when someone was "drinking and driving", that meant they could be drinking anything. Needless to say, I got very nervous when my mom opened a cola while driving.

Jessica Tinch