Man, I loathe thief's. I swear every one of them caught should have their fingers broken, and/or knees as well. It is the only way to curb their 'appeal' for a discount. Damn pathetic. To hell with earning a living.
Had to add this tidbit. When I was a young Sergeant living in an open squad-bay, we had a thief amongst us. Several of the junior Marines said they were missing money. So I took a 5 dollar bill, marked it, and put it under my pillow on my rack. We went to the chow-hall for lunch. Came back, sure enough my $5 bill was gone. Me and the other NCO's closed off the squad-bay, and made everyone bring their wallets to the center area. Sure enough, it was the Corpsman that had the $5 bill in his wallet. So we took him to the Company Office to report him to the Company 1stSgt., 1stSgt Reeves. One of the biggest, real life giants I have ever known in my life. And as calm as death, most of the time. I have never seen a boot as big as the ones he wore. OMG...he grabbed the Corpsman by his shoulders, threw him in the waiting chair outside his office, then swiftly ordered myself and the other Sgt. into his office. Here was when I came real close to pissing myself. He grabbed us both by the throats, shoved us up against the wall, and wanted to know 'WTF wasn't his hands broken?, WTF was his nose not broken?' He thrashed us for a bit, then calmed down and told us if this ever happened again we would be the ones wishing our hands were broken. We left the office and I don't really know what happened to the Corpsman, but I do know he was out of the company by the end of the day.
Things were changing at that time in the Corps. 1stSgt Reeves was a Vietnam Marine, and NOBODY was going to fuk with him. Chesty Puller once said:
“Take me to the Brig. I want to see the “real Marines”.
– Major General Chesty Puller, USMC – while on a Battalion inspection.
But times had changed, and bad paper could completely ruin your career. You didn't know who would back you up if you settled shit the old way, or wrote them up. It was strange.