(Another true story. The names have been changed—Robert)
My name is Nattie. I am a junior in high school. On June 23rd of 2009, I was arrested for shoplifting a walkman’s phone charger from Wal-Mart. To be completely honest with you, I took the blame for it. One of my friends was needing a charger for their 
new walkman so we went to Wal-Mart, when we got there we went straight to the electronics, we found the charger that we needed my friend stuck the charger under his jacket and went to the bathroom.
When he was in the bathroom he had cut the charger pack open, he came back out and found me. We were walking around for about 5 minutes when we noticed that they were three men following us. We freaked out my friend handed me the charger. The man saw my friend, and immediately without thinking, I shoved the charger into my purse.
My friend went one direction and I went toward the door. A man followed me out of Wal-Mart, and stopped me and ask me where and what did I do with the charger? I couldn’t lie to him, so I nervously said it’s in my purse! The man asks me to follow him, so I did. He took me into a small room in Wal-Mart, when I approached the room I saw that my friend was sitting there with his head down. I walked in the room he looked up at me and said "I can’t go to jail, I am in the army and, I have a child on the way."
I’m not the type of person that is a snitch or tattle tales. I took the blame for it, I told that manager of Wal-Mart that I was the one who shoplifted and he had nothing to do with it. He went along with it also. They let my friend go and keep me there. The manager of Wal-Mart called the police.
The police came and searched me and my purse to be sure the charger was the only thing that was stolen. They handcuffed me put me into the police car and took me to their station. When we arrived there, the police officer called my mother and explained to her what had happened and told my mother that I was at the Police Department, to come and get me. They put me into a cell by myself where I sat and waited on my mother to get there.
As I sat there, I thought about whether my mother was ever going to forgive me for this, I mean this was going on my record! I had no clue what to do anymore. I started getting mad, and angry. My best friend left me there to take the blame for everything he had done. I sat in the cell for about 30 minutes then I had feel asleep, I woke up to the officer saying, “Your mother is here to sign you out.”
I was so happy! On the way back to my house, I explained everything to my mom and her boyfriend, they was really upset with me that I had got arrested but, they understood the reason why. My mom always told me growing up never to snitch on anyone. I applied by her rules. The End.
The 360 West Project 