The Candy Shop

A man on the west side of town transformed the living room of his residential home into a candy store. He put a soda machine and a bench out front, which was odd since he would go outside and yell at any kids who sat there for longer than 10 minutes. In his residential zone near the middle school, he replaced his solid front door with a glass door and installed shelving behind a counter in the foyer. Kids would line up in front of his house after school let out. I never thought of it back then, but his neighbors must have wanted him dead. Maybe they were the people who turned him in. There was a story in the paper one day about a police sting. The man had gone shopping every day of his life at the big grocery store in town, and they'd suspected him of shoplifting for years. They checked his bag and looked through store video, and they finally figured out that his shopping bag had a false bottom that he'd fill with candy and sneak out underneath his daily produce. Not exactly groundbreaking as far as conspiracies go, but it was a big deal in our town. Plus the guy managed to go about ten years without every working a real job, and that's a pretty impressive accomplishment.