Anyone been in trouble with police over obsessions??

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Hi,

I have always had the aspie trait of being obsessed with collecting things.
Unfortunatley last year I narrowly avoided jail due to stealing lots of computers
from different places and keeping them. Anyone else had any issues like this??

I used to have an 800 sq foot computer building place I setup after being publicized, that's what created the opportunity. I was fascinated with computer parts for a long time. I had a whole back room with shelves of parts categorized everywhere. I didn't steal a thing, people would just give me computers then I would rebuild them.

I spent 7 days a week all day long just working on them

Prior to that I worked for free in the back of a massive computer warehouse place in the summer. There were computers everywhere and I just re-built them.

When I was younger, a teenager to be exact, I got caught stealing on two occasions, one having to do with my obsessions. I got so terrified of stealing the second time, because the manager really yelled at me for like half an hour after told I was somewhat of a schizophrenic by my parents. I remember my parents considerably yelling at him to not scream at me, because it might set me off. Well, it wasn't setting me off, so the manager kept on screaming. I don't remember at all what the manager said, because I tuned the entire speech out while staring fixated at some object on the wall. Afterwards, I was told to wait out in the waiting room while the manager spoke with my parents. However, my sense of hearing is keen. I sat by the door and listened to everything. The manager said this: "I wanted to really scare him. I don't want to see him end up in jail." Apparently, it worked. I never stole anything else in my life.

If you are having compulsions to break the law, maybe you should seek help. I wouldn't want to see you get in trouble over something so trivial.

- Ray M -

I was taking a photo of a freeway from an overpass once, and an OPP officer saw me, pulled up and asked what I was doing. There had been issues in the region recently with people throwing rocks off overpasses. I wasn't in any trouble though.

Thanks God, I was never in trouble with the police over my obessions; or anything else, for that matter, save for getting pulled over once or twice. However, I'm into trains, so I like to go train-watching when I get a chance. As a result, I can definitely imagine myself getting arrested for tresspassing on railroad property, which is considered a major crime. I thank God on a regular basis that my AS is mild enough not to allow me to go tresspassing just to watch trains. Because in the eyes of the police, an aspie who entered a Union Pacific rail yard to look at old boxcars is just as bad a criminal as an NT who went with intentions to steal cargo.

On the plus side, there is a railroad museum near where I live; it has both historic and modern trains. The owners let visitors walk all over the museum area: on actively used train tracks, inside rail garages and rail yards, and between laid-up trains. You can even climb on the locomotives as long as they aren't moving. Any aspie that likes trains should definitely check the place out.

If the above paragraph made you interested, go to http://www.irm.org.