26 Stealing

CHAPTER 1 Something for Nothing DO YOU ALWAYS DO THE RIGHT THING? How honest are you? Answer these questions to find out! Read each question, and choose A (10 points) or B (5 points). 1. You pay for some things at the store with a $20 bill. But you don't get back a $10 bill you get a $100 bill. What do you do? A Give it back. B Take it and leave. 2. Your friend has a new bike, but you think he stole it. He says you can buy it for $20. What do you do? A Say no. B Buy it. 3. You find a wallet in the street. There is a lot of money in it. What do you do? A Take it to the police. B Take the money this person has a lot of it. 4. It's a hot day and you really want a drink. You go into a store. The bottle of water costs 80 cents, but you only have 50 cents. What do you do? A Leave it. B Steal it— it's only a bottle of water. Your Points How many points did you get? 35—40: You are very honest. 25—30: You should try to be more honest. 20: Are the police looking for you?

CHAPTER 2 Thieves We Like WE TELL STORIES ABOUT THIEVES TO CHILDREN. DO THESE STORIES TEACH CHILDREN RIGHT FROM WRONG? Here is a popular story that parents tell children... Jack lives in a house with his mother. They have no money. They only have a cow. One day the cow gives no more milk. Jack and his mother must sell the cow for money. On the road to the town, Jack meets a man. "I'll give you five magic beans for the cow," he says. Jack gives him the cow and takes the beans home. Jack's mother is very angry with him. She throws the beans out the window and doesn't give him any dinner. In the night, the beans grow into a very tall beanstalk, so tall it goes into the clouds. The next day Jack sees the beanstalk and goes up. Jack comes to a really big house in the sky. It's the home of a giant. He goes inside and the giant's wife gives him food. Before he leaves, Jack steals money and other things from the house. The giant runs after him. Jack goes down the beanstalk and the giant starts to go down also. When Jack gets to the bottom, he cuts down the beanstalk. The giant falls and dies. So, is Jack a good boy for getting money for his family, or is he a thief? Or, is he both?

Jack and the Beanstalk is only a story for children. But some people really stole things and killed other people, and we love their stories, too. We make them famous in books and movies. Jesse James was a poor farmer from Missouri, USA. Jesse and his friends started to steal money from banks and trains. They killed people, too. But people loved reading about them in newspapers. Ned Kelly also came from a farm, but in Australia. One day, the police put his mother in prison, so Ned and his friends killed three policemen. He later stole money from banks and became very famous. People were with Kelly, not with the police. Pirates are also thieves we like. Stories of pirates from long ago are very popular, especially in the movies. But movie pirates are not like real pirates. Take Henry Morgan (1635—1688), for example. Morgan, a Welshman, was not poor. He was very rich. He killed many people and stole a lot of money from ships. He also took money from Spanish cities in the Caribbean. In 1671, Morgan and his men took a lot of the money from Panama City. The Spanish wanted the English king, Charles II, to arrest Morgan. But King Charles liked him and made him Sir Henry Morgan. So crime paid Morgan very well.

CHAPTER 3 Heist WHEN PEOPLE STEAL SOMETHING BIG IN A NEW OR DIFFERENT WAY, WE CALL IT A HEIST. HERE ARE TWO FAMOUS ONES- BUT BOTH WENT WRONG. Paris, Sunday, August 20, 1911 The Louvre is a famous art museum in Paris. Vincenzo Peruggia, an Italian, knows it well because he worked there before. On this day he goes to the museum and stays after it closes. He waits until early the next morning. Then, he takes Leonardo da Vinci's famous painting, Mona Lisa, from the wall, puts it under his coat, and walks out. Two years later, Alfredo Geri gets a letter from Peruggia. Geri buys and sells paintings in Florence. Peruggia writes that he wants to sell the Mona Lisa. Geri speaks to the police, then he answers the letter. Peruggia brings the painting to Florence. Geri meets him, but the police also come, and they arrest Peruggia. Peruggia wasn't just a criminal after easy money. He had a good reason to steal the Mona Lisa. In the early 1800s, the French army was in Florence, Italy. Peruggia thought that they stole the painting and took it back to France. But this isn't true. At the end of his life, da Vinci lived in France and finished the painting there. The French king, Francis 1, bought it after da Vinci died. But in 1913, many Italians thought the painting's home was in Italy.

London, Tuesday, November 7,2000 De Beers is the biggest diamond business in the world. In 2000, some of their best diamonds were in the Millennium Dome in London. One of these was the famous Millennium Star diamond. Others were very expensive blue diamonds. Many people came to see them. But some men wanted to steal the diamonds. The Dome is beside the River Thames, so the criminals got a fast boat. It waited for them near the Dome. The thieves came into the Dome quickly. They drove right through the door in a digger. But the police were waiting for them! Before the crime, one of the criminals talked about it. The story got back to the police. On the day, some police dressed like workers, and others watched the thieves' boat. There were no diamonds in the Dome, only glass copies. The police arrested all of the thieves. One of the biggest heists in history went very wrong.

CHAPTER 4 Stealing from You YOU MAY LIKE TO READ ABOUT FAMOUS HEISTS AND WATCH MOVIES ABOUT THEM, BUT IT'S DIFFERENT WHEN PEOPLE STEAL FROM YOU. THAT ISN'T SO MUCH FUN. One day you read this in the newspaper: Put your money into Doffma LLC and we'll pay you 1% every month! So you give them $500, and they pay you $5 a month. It's more than you can get from the bank. Other people put their money into Doffma, and they get money every month, too. But one day it all stops, and you can't get your money back. You call Doffma LLC, but there's nobody there! This is called a scam, and it's very old, maybe hundreds of years old. But now, with the Internet, there are new scams, and the scammers come right into your home. You get this email: Dear Susi, How are you? I'm in Malaysia on vacation, but last night somebody stole my money, phone, and plane ticket. I can't pay for my hotel, and I can't get home. Please send me $3,000. I will pay you back very soon. Your friend, Jessica Jessica is a good friend, so you send her the money.