the law: criminals

I used to watch Court TV when I was younger, so you can probably already guess what kind of imagination I had. I'd always be afraid when my mom stopped at a gas station and left us in the car to go pay for gas, because I thought that some crazy Einstein-looking guy with a lab coat would break into the car and steal it, taking us with him.

I remember one time (think i was about 5) my mom told me it was illegal to pick California poppies. So some time afterwards when I was on a field-trip at school there was a field with a bunch of California poppies and I was really scared to go near them because I thought if I stepped on one or one went missing (like they count them everyday :) They would d think I did it and I would go to jail

When I was younger I always wanted to be kidnapped because I KNEW that the kidnapper would fall in love and change his mind and we would live happily ever after.

When I was young, I used to see "90 days, same as cash" on retail windows in my neighborhood. I thought that meant that if you had a choice of going to jail for 90 days, or paying cash for your purchase.

I was very confused by the idea of money laundering. When I was little, my mother always told me to empty my pockets of spare change before putting my dirty clothes in the laundry. I watched a lot of crime movies with my father as a child, and I thought I had to take the coins out to not commit money laundering, which was a serious crime. I later learned as an adult that money laundering had nothing to do with the actual wash, and my mom only wanted to avoid the coins rusting the washer, not saving me from federal prosecution.

When I was a kid I thought rape just meant someone tearing the clothes off of a woman's body.

when i was little i used to think that rape was where you used a rake to attack someone

I used to believe that if you did not keep your shoes tied, that the police would arrest you.

I used to beleive that you would be put in jil if you didn't do what your parents told you to by the count of 1. I thought that they would just take you to jail and keep you there untill you died.

I am from the UK and the first time we went to America my Dad told me that it was the law to salute a picture of the President of the USA whenever you saw one. I looked pretty stupid in the airport when I saluted a picture of Bill Clinton, and was really worried my family would be arrested because they didn't!

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.

When I was younger, I used to think that alcohol in beverages was the same as rubbing alcohol. Therefore, I pictured a group of gangmembers standing in a circle, passing around a white bottle that had rubbing alcohol in it.

We used to watch " America's Most Wanted" and I pictured the killers and rapists outside seeing us seeing them and how they were bad and I thought they would come kill us so we couldn't tell on them, or find them.

When i was little my parents kept me in line by saying that if i was bad they would call "the baby police" and they had an old phone that didn't work hung up on the wall and my dad would pretend to call the baby police. i'm still a little uneasy aroungd cops

I used to believe that if kids have money too much the police will caught them and put em in jail. That's sick...

I used to be confused about the concept of speeding tickets. I figured that about 99% of people just threw these away and were never bothered by them again. So when my mom got a ticket when I was little I volunteered to "throw it away during cleanup time"