Common thief who stole my hubcaps

THE EDITOR: Open letter to the thief who stole my hubcaps.

I wonder if you considered yourself a criminal when you stole two of the hubcaps off my car while I was grocery shopping on Saturday during this difficult time. I paid for my car, including its hubcaps. You did not! The mere fact that you apparently drive a similar car to mine’s suggests to me that you are not poor. Not rich, but not poor either. Poor people do not own cars.

Maybe you don’t think you are a thief. Did your parents teach you to steal things that do not belong to you? Did you see your mother taking snacks and drinks off the shelf for her and for you while shopping at a supermarket and consuming them in the store and not paying for them at the cashier? Were you taught that this is not stealing?

Did your father bring home toilet paper, paper towels, pens and pencils from his office? His boss paid for those items and has to replace them. Is this not considered to be stealing in your family? Trust me, he is a common criminal. A thief!

Did your grandmother proudly display a cute wine glass she put into her handbag at a restaurant after having dinner? Or a knife and fork set? She is a thief!

Did your father walk you barefooted into a grocery store and then you both walked out with rubber slippers on your feet? Your father said, “This is fine; the store owners have a lot of money.” He is a thief!

Are you teaching your own children all the clever little ways to save money by stealing? Turning them into thieves?

So, you are feeling fine with the fact that you stole my hubcaps because you don’t feel to wait until the shops open again to buy a pair for your car? Do you congratulate yourself on your cleverness to get this “freeness?”

After all, you are not alone with this mentality. There are many people who don’t think they are criminals because they do not engage in organised crime, but you all are. You are thieves!

Did you, just for a moment, consider the upset and hardship you are causing me by stealing the hubcaps from my 16-year-old car? Or did you feel triumphant that you pulled it off? I am an old age pensioner and have to use money from my pension to replace hubcaps. I will have to wait until car part shops or the Bamboo open again after this “lockdown.”

Or, wait a minute, should I, armed with a screw driver or tyre iron, just steal them from another car? Just like you did?

You are a thief!

IB WARNARS

Port of Spain

PS: I was reliably informed that you are not alone in this. Apparently “non-thieves” are staling “anything” off cars now at shopping places because of the temporary closed car parts places. A fraternity of “common” thieves!