A bunch of us were playing hide-and-seek in the rubble of a large factory that had been half torn down in back of Queen Street between Sherbourne and Jarvis Streets when we discovered boxes and boxes of candy hidden there. Wow, this was really it, we had hit the jackpot, our ship had come in, we were in candy heaven.
We decided to fill up a box each of the stuff we liked in a sort of mix and match fashion and take it home with us. So off we went with our arms wrapped firmly around these treasure chests filled with precious goodies. Oodles of licorce, gobs of chocolate and tons of jaw busting rock candy weighting us down. Each and every one of us clutching enough tooth rotting heavenly sweetness to last us the rest of the summer. Down the laneway we went in a joyful procession with dreams of gooey delights dancing wildly in our heads. We strutted out onto Sherbourne Street, then as we headed north our bubble burst.
A police cruiser pulled up beside us and we all knew the gig was up.
"Hey, what you guys got in those boxes" He sez as he slides out of the car.
"Candies sir" We replied.
"Where'd ya get them?" He Asked.
"We found them in that torn down factory over there, we didn't take them all, there's still lots left" We spurted out in the hopes that he'd let us keep this stuff and go over and scoop up his own goodies.
No such luck though, we had run into a candy hating cop.
"Okay, lets go over there and have a look" He sez as he threw our treasure into the trunk and escorted us into the back seat.
Upon arriving at the crime scene the cop let me out and I ushered him over to the stash where still about 15 boxes remained. He looked it over and wrote something down in his little black book. He didn't move anything and we got back into the cruiser and then headed over to the cop shop on Regent Street.
Now we're sitting in the police station and they're telling us that William's Discount Store was broken into the night before and they think it was us. We were 11 and 12 years old and were by no means well schooled in the fine art of burglary and the cops knew it. They were just trying to shake us up but it wasn't working too well. We were sort of enjoying ourselves with all this attention being paid to us. However, as our mothers started filing into the station a feeling of doom seemed to descend on us as we all figured that we may be rapidly heading for a good old fashioned whupping.
An hour or so later two cops came in
dragging along a couple of big kids by the arm and take them into
another room. Not long after that a cop comes over and says we can go
home. These were the guys that had knocked over the store and they
had already confessed. Apparently the cops had staked out the stash
and busted these other guys when they went to collect the goodies. I
guess that's why the cop that grabbed us didn't touch anything. Phew!
That was a close one. Oh, by the way, we didn't ask the cops if we
could keep some of the candies and they didn't offer. Hey, I still
think we should have got a little reward. After all, if it wasn't for
us they never would have solved the crime.
Oh, by the way, I don't think any of us took a lickin'. I guess our
parents were just glad that we hadn't got into any real trouble.
