For obvious reasons I need to say that this is written from the perspective of someone who may or may not be me.

I have probably stolen around 50 vehicles in my 8 years of Intravenous meth and heroin use. I’ve been caught 3 times for Unauthorized Use Of A Vehicle, served 14 months Garza West Texas State Prison for car and property theft related charges, got out and went right back to it. What’s crazy is that the law here in Texas says it’s not considered auto theft if you have the keys, it’s an unauthorized use which only carries about a 6 month sentence, so I would pop the locks on cars and find unlocked vehicles with spare keys hidden in them. The amount of cars that are left unlocked with valuables (I’ve found everything from guns, jewelry, electronics, even 3500$ once) and keys is STAGGERING. I would get into a few dozen cars easily in the middle of the night, being really selective with the ones I hit so I had an exit route or fence to hop if anyone came out. I’ve been beaten senseless, shot at, and even had someone try to hit me with their vehicle hunting me down.

To be completely honest I used to have zero shame over any of this. I was a really angry and troubled child and just kind of villainized myself. I hated people. I would target very nice neighborhoods and condominiums not only because they had the nicest stuff and highest rate of marks (easy to target vehicles) but also because I just hated high society. I probably had stolen close to a half million dollars worth of cars and merchandise in the 8 years I was running the streets. I started upping my game towards the end of my run; I would team up with a homeboy and we would use tech to cover our asses. We started using drones to monitor the entrance to condominiums since there was only one way in and out we were guaranteed a head start if the police came. He eventually graduated to using key fobs and copying the signals to be able to steal really high end push to start vehicles.

Now before I get totally roasted alive for being such a huge POS, I will say I am now over a year sober and have done a lot of work over the damage I’ve done to peoples lives and families. I have a lot of remorse for the things I’ve done but the shame no longer controls my life. There is no real way for me to make amends today other than just being sober and being better, and that’s what I’m doing.