criminals

when i was about 8 my dad and i walked past a 'bill posters will be prosecuted' sign on the side of a building. i asked my dad who bill posters was and he told me that he was a gangster.

Lucy

I suppose that from the ages of about 6-8 I must have thought murders were a pretty common occurence, and that murderers must be generally on the prowl for sneaking in people's windows and stabbing up little kids. I suppose this is what I believed, as I distinctly remember piling my (not inconsiderable amount of) cuddley toys on top of me at night. I remember feeling very bad that I was putting my own life and feeling before those of my cuddlies, but doing it none the less. My idea being that is a murderer should come through my window his knife might not reach me through all my cuddley toys. It neither occurred to me that it was reasonably unlikely that a murderer would come in through my window, nor thathe might have some other weapon than a knife - say, a gun - against which my cuddley toys would provide no defense at all.

Rhube

I used to believe that a widower was a guy who killed married husbands to make thier wife a widow

Jessica

I used to not get why anyone would plead guilty since wouldn't you just go to jail for sure then? (this was before I knew they would go easy on you if you plead guilty) I also thought parole and probation was the same thing

Lord Nagafen

I used to think that if you gave prison guards enough money, they had to let your friends out, and the police couldn't arrest them again unless they committed another crime. It always seemed to work that way in TV shows.

Alex S

When my husband was about seven, his mom brought him to camp and the teenage girl camp counselors told him that when he grew up, he was going to be a real "ladykiller". He was devastated. His mother couldnt understand why calls were being made to the house, that he really wanted to come home, and she later learned that he had been terrified by the notion that he was going to be a murderer when he grew up......

Elizabeth Brady

In the US, pillows and mattresses have a tag on them that says :

UNDER PENALTY OF LAW THIS TAG IS NOT TO BE REMOVED EXCEPT BY THE CONSUMER.

I used to belive that it was illegal to ever remove the tag from mattresses and pillows. I thought that even if you bought it you still couldn't remove the tag or you would go to jail. ( I didn't now what a consumer was then)

Once the tag came off my pillow. I ran crying to my mom, terrified that I was going to be arrested. She calmed me down and explained that the tag only had to be left on when the pillow/mattress was being sold at the store.

Sharon

From the ages of 4-10 (I'm 10) I thought a "Cat Burgler" was a person who stole cats.

MarkoPolo5000

I used to believe it was illegal to shop at Goodwill unless you were poor.

Aretia

When I was young, to stop me and my sister playing with the electric windows in the car our mom told us it was illegal to open car windows on the freeway. I didn't realise this wasn't the case until I was 17 years old when taking a road trip with my buddies. Embarassing.

Nick C

I thought crimes were a lot rarer than they actually were--for instance, if someone held up a gas station in Maine, it would be on the news all over the country, with pictures on TV and massive manhunts going on. When I read in a book that "there has been no crime in all of Mexico for five days" (because the criminals were all working together on a huge plot), I didn't see why that was such a big deal.

Anon

When I first saw somepne play Monopoly, I thought that if you landed on "Go to Jail" you would really have to go to jail.

Kdees

I used to believe (and i admit i sometimes still do) that when you were away from your house for over an hour at night, when you came home the first person to use the toilet would be attacked by a burgler hiding behind the shower curtain who had been stealing from the house and had hid away in the bath when he heard people come home.

RW

I think it was because I watched to many movies, but i always though, for about a year, that someone had a sniper rifle aimed at my head. I only thought this late at night, when i whent up to my room and the windows were open. Because of this fear, I would roll around my room, keeping my head down, to stay alive.

Jordan Salisbury

When I was little I pulled a tag off of a pillow, and when I read it had that "DO NOT REMOVE UNDER PENALTY OF LAW" warning on it. I hid in my room and cried because I thought I had done something terribly illegal and I was going to jail for it!!

Becca

Whilst watching re-constructions of crimes on the the t.v. i could never fully grasp what sort of person would film an armed robbery, rape, murder etc rather than doing something to prevent it. I am not willing to say how long this moral dilema troubled but suffice to say i was enjoying a pint in a pub (leagally!) when i was given an explanation for their lack of morals!

Helllen

Until I was about 11 or 12 I thought that "prostitute" referred to a female criminal.

Anon

When i used to see the sign 'shoplifters will be prosecuted' i thought that prosecuted was something like electrocuted and they were put to death!

simon

When I was little my older brother told me it was illegal to wear gold and silver jewelry at the same time. I'm 14 and I still won't do it even though I know it's not true!

☼♥☼MEG!☼♥☼

When I was young I thought the IRA was like the IRS and that Ireland was overrun by irate tax collectors.

jhager