Caught Stealing (2004) Read Online Free PDF

thought about how I'd like to beat the shit out of their healthy bodies. After about a week, I started sneaking off with the burners to get baked behind the equipment shed. That's how I met Wade, Steve, and Rich.
    Breaking into a house in the suburbs is easy. Unlocked doors are common and unlocked windows are universal. No one had an alarm back then. Rich and Steve only did houses they knew were empty. That was fun. You hop a fence and usually just go in the back door. You run the house quick, looking for cash or jewelry or drugs, just what fits in your pockets, then you get out. Wade liked to hit houses when the people were home. I liked it too.
    You pick a house. What you're looking for is no lights at all or lights in one room only. A house where all the people are sleeping is a charge, but a house where someone is awake is unreal. You test the side garage door and go in there. Once in the garage, you can get a feel for what's going on in the house. And no one locks the house door to the garage. You slip into the house and listen for the TV. Thursday night in the eighties and everyone in America is watching The Cosby Show, Family Ties, Cheers, Night Court, and Hill Street Blues. For those three hours you could do whatever you wanted. Walking past the open door of the family room, you peek in and see Mom, Dad, and the kids grouped around the set. Even if you asked directions to the bathroom no one would look up. Sometimes it was too easy.
    I was at it for a few months until I got busted. The cops stopped me and Wade after we did a house. All they were looking to do was hassle us for being out after curfew, but we smarted off and they got us with cash, a bottle of Valium and some lady's engagement ring. I quit after that. My folks picked me up at the station and I quit. They looked so disappointed. I didn't see much of Wade and Steve after that, but I stayed close to Rich.
    The fire escape for my apartment is at the back of the building. I move down it quick and easy, or as quick and easy as I can with the pain in my side. I stop when I get to the floor above mine. The fire escape extends down at a sharp angle, half ladder/half staircase, and dumps you about a foot to the left of my bedroom window. Unless one of these guys is standing right at the window, I should be able to creep down and press myself against the bricks between my place and Russ's. From there I can listen and decide if I can afford to take a peek or if I should just get the hell out.
    I relax. I am ready to start down the steps. And the dog in the apartment I am outside of starts to bark bloody murder.
    I don't think. I fly down the steps and flatten myself against the bricks. The only way I can be seen now is if someone sticks their head out the window. I wait while I catch my breath and the dog winds down. No one opens my window. I am calm. I settle against the bricks and listen. They are in there. I can hear low voices and what seems to be a great deal of rummaging and low-key destruction. The sound is a bit faint and does not seem to be coming directly from my bedroom just inside the window. I decide to take a peek. I turn so that I face the bricks, inch over to the window and dart my right eye out and back as quickly as possible. And I see nothing. I breathe. Slowly this time, I poke my head out enough to see a wide swath of the bedroom and living area and I see nothing. No people, no signs of search or forced entry. I see only Bud sitting on my bed where he is not allowed and looking at me with an expression that clearly says: "What the fuck are you doing?" Yes, the searching sounds are in fact coming from behind me in Russ's apartment.
    I repeat the process. I edge to Russ's window and do the quick peek and get an impression of a big mess and some people. I do some more breathing and go back for a better look. There are three guys in there; I'm not sure what they look like because the blood pounding in my temples keeps blurring my vision. One of them