“What do you mean, I can’t go home for Christmas?” I was aghast. I was being accused of burglary! Why did I squirrel away those soda crackers? I don’t even really like soda crackers!
Those darn soda crackers! The dormitory I where I lived, was served by a large kitchen/dining room complex. It served the newest ten dorms on the hill. Every night as I left dinner, I would take a soda cracker packet with me to my room. I thought it would be nice to have in case I got hungry, and I would put it in my empty suitcase in the top of my closet. It wasn’t something I thought too much about, but it became a habit to bring a packet or two home each evening.
By the end of the quarter, which was just before Christmas, I had a suitcase full of soda crackers. Well, unknown to me, someone broke into the cafeteria and stole some items. In their investigation, the campus police searched all of the dorm rooms to find evidence. In their search, they found my stash of soda crackers.
The campus police interrogated me. They felt they had their man. After all, I had a suitcase full of soda crackers that came from the cafeteria. I didn’t know, until they revealed it to me, that they had a fuzzy video, and they felt I looked like the subject in the video. This was crazy to me, because I knew I was innocent. I might have been a little stupid for saving soda crackers, but I sure didn’t break into the kitchen during the night.
That was my first experience of being falsely accused. It was a sinking feeling. How do you convince someone of your blamelessness? It really opened my eyes to the fact that this could occur.
After several days, I was finally allowed to go home for Christmas. I didn’t hear anything else after that. I lost my stash of soda crackers, and a big piece of my innocence.
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