This story comes from author Roy McConnell. The synchronicity is that Roy, a teenage thief at the time, was inadvertently turned away from this lifestyle by another thief.
“I was fifteen years old and living as a street person in Vancouver, British Columbia. I had met up with a professional thief who taught me how to make a living on the street by stealing from people’s cars and fencing the goods to a local fence. One night we broke into a vehicle in a private garage attached to house and stole the eight track tape deck and all of the tapes. While we were making our getaway we saw a police car cruising by and got scared. My friend went into KFC and got a couple of bags. We split the stolen items between the two bags and went our separate ways to decrease the chances of both of us being caught. The more I walked, the more frightened I got.
“I saw a half-ton truck waiting to turn at a street corner. I went to the passenger door and told the man that the police were chasing me and I needed to get away. I must have been in sheer panic mode because nothing else can explain why I did such an irrational thing. He told me to throw the stuff in the back of the truck and get in. He drove me to Stanley Park, but on the way he told me that he was a supplier of heroine to drug dealers and an art thief. He wanted to hire me to distribute heroine from an apartment that he would set me up in as well as paying me five hundred dollars per week. The man drove me to a secluded area in Stanley Park and continued trying to convince with a number of perks such as the dealers women who pick up the heroine like sex with young guys like me. Being fifteen and living on the streets the offer was very attractive, but I was afraid for my life. Suddenly, the man said that he had a strong feeling that he shouldn’t be offering me this deal. He seemed noticeably frightened and took me back to where he’d picked me up and told me if I wanted what he was offering to meet him there the next morning. I didn’t.”
