Why?
 

Why do people do shit like this?

I'll never understand, her messing with that evidence is gonna cause a ton of backlash for the courts. Criminals will probably walk free because of it. Shit like this is a waste of our resources, the money she'll cost her state will well exceed the 85K she stole. What a bitch.

crime of opportunity. it was no one's cash. criminal's cash, who cares? it's in the logs, the evidence has been noted. I need the money. Just this once. Just *this* once. one more time.

see no one knows it's gone.

I took some money from my dad and mom a few times. I told 'em later. Usually I bought gas or food.

The $85,000 was spread out over 7 years. Roughly a thousand bucks a month, she wasn't exactly living the high life off it. Maybe she was even buying gas and food with it, eh?

(Please note I'm not condoning her behavior, just putting it in perspective.)

I was cleaning out the office of a guy who had been fired here at my firm. (some parts of my job suck)

Under his desk were two boxes full of brand new high-end digital cameras, still in unopened boxes.

My heart skipped a beat and then I realized after a moment that the cameras had been potential evidence in a case that had settled several months ago and were related to the mess of files scattered around his office. The client had paid for him to buy these cameras.

His office had been unlocked and the boxes were not secured. There were at least a thousand people who theoretically had access to his office and to those cameras. And he had just been fired for screwing up several aspects of his job.

It would have been VERY easy for me to just take one camera and then play dumb in the unlikely event of anyone ever noticing that one camera was missing. The case was over. The cameras were no longer critical to the business of the firm. The client, a large corporation, technically owned them, but they probably didn't even know of them.

There was very very little risk of me being caught if I took one.

I didn't take one. But I was tempted. I turned them over to someone to send off the the client.

For me it was mainly that I knew I would feel guilty each time I'd pull out the ill gotten camera, and wouldn't enjoy it. Plus how could I explain the sudden appearance of a nice new camera to my wife and kids?

All this is to say that I understand the temptation when you think you wouldn't get caught.

Plus, maybe I would get caught.