I am, after about thirty years, going to confess to an enamel I gained dishonestly, and after all these years still have a pang of guilt about how I got it.

I was 17 years old and had just started work near Barking in Essex, and every day passed a chemist which had a mint condition Ex-Lax thermometer. In the end I ventured into the chemist and talked to the pharmacist. My story was that I was a student studying advertising and design and would like to borrow the sign as part of my course - just for a few days. I must have had a very honest face because he said yes to my request.

I never did return the sign, yes, I know, rather bad form. I imagine the pharmacist has long died and the actual shop is trading as something else.

I'm sure a lot of you have a story that reads like this? Come on now, we all have a skeleton in the cupboard. Its confession time!

Fred Kite

 hi chaps ...    please dont let  enamels 1000  comment on  this  one  as  you  dont  have enough pages,,,,,, haaaa  haaa  ,,  the best  one was  joe and his  lad   allen getting near caught  piggy  back  trying to  get   motoring  sign  off  bus  stop  in  a local  village ,,,,,,take care all eddy

great story Fred about the EX-LAX...i would have been {crapping} myself too..lol.

Oh dear,it's confession time. I'm not Catholic, so need the Church of Alex to confess my sins.

Similar story, aged probably about 17, approx 35 years ago, penniless but bitten by the tin bug. Went into a 'prop hire shop' for theatre/TV props, I think in Hammersmith or Fulham. Persuaded the staff to let me hire some goodies for a school play, paid a small deposit, never did return them. Nothing outrageous as I recall, but treasure to me then. Probably still in the loft somewhere. Out & out criminality, I don't claim any justifiation or expect forgiveness, but welcome the opportunity to confess.If you are the owner of that shop, I apologise, please let me know how I might atone for my sins, also whether or not 'prop shops' still exist & if you have any decent stuff.. Perhaps some understanding?, the power of advertising on the young,  hopefully the statute of limitations will save me from belated prosecution.

Inconsequential stuff perhaps compared to some of the (very few) rip off merchants I've encountered & heard tell of in the last 35 years of avid collecting. Fortunately, most dealers seem to have a natural angelic gene that will hopefully soon be isolated &  cloneable.

Apart from the selfish cathartic value of this confession, perhaps it might encourage others to continue this thread & open the closet, could be fascinating stuff if Alex can suggest immunity from prosecution.

Come on RG, if you're reading this, surely time to fess up?

ABOUT 10YRS AGO I WAS OUT AN ABOUT LOOKING FOR SIGNS AS I DO IN THE MIDLANDS AN EVERYWHERE ELSE, I CLOCKED DOWN THE SIDE OF AN ENTRANCE BETWEEN TWO PAKI SHOPS A LONG ROWNTREES ENAMEL FIXED TO THE WALL...IN FRONT OF THE SIGN WAS ABOUT 4 OR 5 BIKES WHICH WASNT REALLY A PROBLEM UNTIL I STARTED TO MOVE THEM TO GET TO THIS SIGN,,OUT CAME THE OWNER WITH LOADS OF KIDS AN A BIG EVIL LOOKING ROTTY...ha ha..I WAS OFF...LATER THAT DAY I WENT BACK TO FIND THE BIKES HAD BEEN MOVED AND WERE LOCKED UP AWAY FROM THE SIGN....8 SPRIGGS LATER AND THE SIGNS OFF,UNDER MY ARM AND IM OFF...TO BE HONEST,,I DONT FEEL ANY GUILT AT ALL...3 WEEKS LATER THE SHOPS WERE DEMOLISHED AN GONE...I MANAGED TO SAVE AN RESCUE JUST A VERY TINY PORTION OF MY HERITAGE AND SOCIAL HISTORY..."ENUFF SAID"....

This thread is wrong on so many levels.

WOULD BE VERY INTERESTED TO KNOW WHY????

The ' Bucket Woman ' strikes ......................again

Not very active but when she does  ?  Ouch !

IM JUST GLAD I NEVER MENTIONED THE SLIM PICTORIAL CRAVEN "A" THAT WAS JUST STICKING OUT OF THE TOP OF THE SAME BLOKES COAL-HOUSE IN THE BACKYARD...I THOUGHT IT SAID..."FOR GODS SAKE TAKE ME"...{FOR YOUR THROATS SAKE SMOKE CRAVEN A}..??? NOW THERES ANOTHER ONE..

Would be very interested to know why?????

Okay then, here you go.

First the title of the thread. "Collected by less than honourable means". There is no such thing as less than honourable. You are either an honourable person or you are a dishonourable person. Less than honourable is just a sugar coated way of saying dishonourable.

Fred goes into a shop and lies to a person that showed him kindness and trust. Have any of you ever been screwed over by someone you were good to? Not the greatest feeling, is it? Fred was young when he did it, so let's put it down as a youthful indiscretion. Fine, but why come on to a public forum and start a thread encouraging others to tell of their dishonesty.

Woodbine tells us how he rented some prop advertising items with the intention of keeping them. An act of outright fraud and theft. Funny stuff unless you are the person who had his items stolen. Once again you can put it down to youthful indiscretion and once again I ask why tell everyone about it? Then Woodbine tells us it is inconsequential stuff compared to some of the other stuff he has seen. Oh well, since some other people are bigger thiefs then you get a pardon?

As for you Banjo Boy. You don't even have the youthful indiscretion defence to fall back on. You see a sign firmly attached to someone's building. It is their property and you have no right to remove it. You even have the giant balls to start moving bicycles that were inconveniently in the way. You get chased and run away like a little weasel only to return later to complete your criminal activity. Still, the best is yet to come. Your justifications for taking the sign are utter nonsense. The building was knocked down 3 weeks later. So what? How do you know that the owner wasn't going to salvage the sign before the demolition? Why didn't you approach the owner and ask him if he was interested in selling the sign? Bottom line, the sign was not yours and if the owner wanted to put a wrecking ball through it then that was his decision to make. You feel no guilt because you managed to convince yourself that you had rescued a portion of your heritage and social history. It was a flippin' Rowntree's sign not the crown jewels. A part of your heritage?? I suppose if your parents were cocoa beans then you could grasp for that straw. 

Look, the bottom line is you stole the sign and feel justified in doing so. By your reasoning I could come to your house and help myself to anything I felt you weren't showing the appropriate reverence to. How's that sound mate? One last thing. You must know that calling someone a Paki is a racial slur?

You asked why I thought this topic was wrong on many levels? I suppose I think that dishonesty, deception and thievery, with a little bit of racism thrown in for good measure is more suited to WEAREYOBS.COM and not a site devoted to the pursuit and history of advertising antiques. 

Just for the record, I have done things in the past that I am not proud of so this has nothing to do with being a self righteous prick. I make no excuses for my actions and I try not to repeat them. I don't know you people so I can't pass judgement on you but if you choose to come onto an open forum and make light of dishonesty then I sure as hell have the right to comment on that.

..THANKS FOR THAT HYACINTH BUCKET,,OR SHOULD IT BE BOO-KAY?...I WILL TAKE ON BOARD WHAT YOU~VE SAID..CAN I JUST SAY THOUGH THAT INSTEAD OF BREAKING FOLKS NUTS ON HERE,WHY DONT YOU POST SOMETHING OF "REAL INTEREST" FOR US TO VIEW ...{PERHAPS A SIGN OR EVEN A TIN}..LETS FACE IT,,THATS THE IDEA ISNT IT....I LOOK FORWARD TO YOUR NEXT "5th" POSTING..ANYWAY,,,I MUST DASH NOW,IVE JUST HAD WORD OF A COUPLE OF ENAMELS ON AN ALLOTMENT....BETTER CHANGE MY {GUCCI LOAFERS} AS IT MAYBEE QUITE MUDDY UNDER FOOT..

ANOTHER THING ASWELL HYACINTH..A BLACKBOARD IS A BLACKBOARD AND IN MY BOOK ALWAYS WILL BE A BLACKBOARD...AND FOR GODS SAKE LET US NEVER STOP KIDS PLAYING CONKERS IN SCHOOLS AND CLIMBING TREES..