After my half brother and I had our fight inside Wilkinson Road Jail , I received a small punishment by the Assistant Warden. He was a little shocked with the brutal attack on my brother. I explained I would of preferred to finish this , “piece of business ” , on the street. Instead of inside his prison. Unfortunately this was the first time I have seen him since he decided to sacrifice me , to save himself. He had informed on me to the police that I had done a crime with him. He was arrested close to where a break and enter happened and he had stolen property from that crime scene on him. It was an open and shut case for the prosecution. My half brother knew this and the only way he would find any leniency would be to inform on the details , regarding the B&E. The code of conduct amongst criminals is very clear. If you are arrested by the police , you do not cooperate.

Since my brother cooperated , it was my duty to punish him for breaking the code. The older convicts state that my duty , as the one who was betrayed , was to kill my brother. So he could never do this to another person. I kind of understand the reasoning behind this logic but I also knew if I did kill him , I would cause great suffering to our mother , grand mother and other people who liked him. Even though I seriously contemplated killing my half brother , I had made up my mind not to inflict that kind of pain onto our mom. So if there was any way where I could seriously beat or harm my half brother , instead of killing him , I was going to do that. If I was to do nothing , I would of brought down the rathe of the general population down upon myself. As well as caused serious damage to my reputation.

When a person crosses the line of right and wrong , according to the laws of that country , you open yourself up to a wide range of rules. These rules are self imposed by both sides. If you chose to live outside the law , you must also understand there are certain things that are still deemed unacceptable. You do not cooperate with the police. You do not sexual assault any women. The biggest fault a person can do , when living outside the law , is to bring harm to any children. If you are an adult then you should only prey on other adults. To sexually assault any child , is not only a crime but considered the worst action a criminal can make. It is not as though criminals are held to a high standard in any community but as a criminal , I do not want my reputation corrupted even more by being bunched into the same lot as a police informant or a child molester.

Having stated this , all criminals acquire a reputation. Your reputation dictates how other criminals treat you. This is both inside a jail and out. When a person is arrested and put into a jail , they are kept in a forced environment and basically forgotten about. When inside you are given the very basics to clothe yourself and placed into a cell. Inside the cell is a toilet and a bunk. You receive two sheets and a single blanket. Most criminals also get a single pillow but that is not always the case. Either way a person loses everything in their possession but they can never trap our minds. We lose everything except our reputation. So anything that directly influences our reputation is highly guarded and definitely worth fighting for. If I was to not fight or at least try to harm my half brother for his betrayal to the code and his cooperating with the police against me , I would gain the reputation as being an extremely weak and soft person.

During my first sentence at V.I.R.C.C. ( Vancouver Island Regional Correctional Center ) or Wilkinson Road Jail , I was 17 and supposed to of been a youth and in a juvenile facility. Since I wasn’t , a lot of people asked me why I was allowing myself to be in an adult jail. Everyone knew the law had just been changed earlier in that year , the law changed the age of an adult from 16 to 18 years. So a person needed to be at least 18 to be legally kept in an adult jail. I did my best to explain how I got here and the circumstances surrounding it. Since this was my introduction into an adult jail , I had to learn a lot of new rules that were enforced by the convicts. It was not an easy task and that first time was extremely enlightening and unpleasant.

I am not going to get involved with all the people who challenged me or the gay men who wanted to grab this fresh meat, ( a first timer in jail ) but I do want you to understand since I told people about my brother informing on me , it was general knowledge inside the jail. After I finished my sentence I was released from jail. Within a week I was back inside and within the first hour , I ran into my half brother. The prosecution waited for me to get out of that jail before they sentenced my half brother for his participation in the B&E. I received a year and he got 3 months because he cooperated. After hurting my brother and dealing with that situation , I gained the reputation as a solid convict who deals with his own business. With that kind of reputation , I was looked up to by most of the people inside the jail.

I should let you know that the reason I refer to people in the jail as convicts is because that is what we are . Convicted criminals. Some people refer to us as inmates but an inmate is someone who is placed in a mental institution for crimes against the public. When in jail a person has way too much time to think and most spend there time trying to educate themselves. We also work on our bodies to make ourselves stronger. When in fights a little bit of extra muscle or weight can sometimes make the difference between taking a beating or handing one out. Like minded people usually find each other. We do this to learn from each other.

It is funny when you look up the word rehabilitated in the dictionary since it states , to make a person better than they previously were. Now there are multiple definitions but I am choosing this one. So I say it is funny because when we come out of jail , we should be better than we were before we came in. Convicts try to be better at their craft while inside. So if you got busted doing a Break & Enter , then by the time you get out of jail , you should be a better B&E artist. Of course this is not what society wants to happen but it is a reality. Provincial jails are used as educational tools for criminals. Federal jails are used for the same but are also gladiator schools. In a Federal jail if any situation demands a fight , it is better to kill the person than have them kill you after you have beaten them. People in jail have a tendency to not let any situations go until it is fully resolved. Part of the reason jails are so dangerous.

After I dealt with the situation with my half brother I started to hang out with a new crowd , partially because I had proven myself. I tended to not get close to too many people since I never knew there real intent. I only spent a couple months inside and was released again. On the day of your release your are brought out of the main jail and kept in a small cell until your release documents are dealt with. While waiting I shared that cell with another prisoner being released. We spent an easy 45 minutes in that cell and decided to go get breakfast together , after we got out. That person is friend of mine to this day , his name is Dave.

Dave and I went out and got some food into us. As we ate we got to know each other a little better. He stated how odd that situation with my brother must of been. I told him how I was told that I should kill him but I did not think I should do something like that to my mom. He thought he would not be able to do that to a brother either and it was pretty cold for someone to suggest I kill my own brother ! I said I understood the reasoning behind it but I agreed it was an odd thing for someone to suggest. The more we talked , the more of a connection we made with each other.

We both felt that doing B&E’s was a good way to make money. He preferred to steal cartons of smokes from mom and dad grocery stores. As I stated all the boxes of cartons of cigarettes I saw in the warehouse , Dave told me he has grocery stores that buy stolen cartons of cigarettes from him. We decided we would spend a day or two together and check out some stores , to evaluate if they would be easy to steal from. As we wondered around we would go into different stores that sold smokes. He showed me his technique of stealing cartons. He would carry his jacket into a store and throw two or three cartons down each sleeve of his jacket.

After using this tactic myself both Dave and I had 10 to 15 cartons of smokes. We went to one of his buyers and sold them for 5 bucks apiece. Back in the mid 80’s , 50 to 75 dollars was a nice little chunk of change for only a couple hours of work. Knowing there are a couple hundred stores with cartons in Victoria , started getting me excited about how easy this money was. I kept stating that even though this was working really well , I believed we should find a store with no alarms and B&E the place and take all of the cartons. He agreed and we went looking for an easy store to take down. It did not take us more than a week before we found a good place.

Dave and I both elected to do the B&E around 2 o’clock. Since the bars stop serving at that time it seemed like the most logical decision. We had been staying at Dave’s friend’s house. He was a bouncer at a bar here in Victoria. As the bouncer he also had the luxury of letting his friends into the bar. One of his close friends was a drug dealer so what Dave and I were doing was not of great concern. Dave was a little older than I was so I usually deferred to how he wanted to this crime. He assumed the doors would be alarmed for sure so we need to find our way in through one of the windows. After gaining access through a window we immediately went to our tasks.

We found the large garbage bags and made quick work of getting all the cartons we could find into them. We had a total of three bags full. We decided to open the back door to escape from the store. We knew the alarm would go off but it still gave us at least a full 2 to 3 minutes before the police arrived. Just as he opened the door I realized I did not check the tills for money or grab the lottery tickets. Dave grabbed two of the bags and said he will meet me at our prearranged spot. I ran back up front and emptied the tills and grabbed the lottery tickets. I placed the money down my pants and put the lottery tickets ,( scratch and wins ) into the last bag. As I threw the tickets into the bag , I saw red and blue lights closing in on the building.

I knew from experience the tenacity the police have in stopping thieves. I also knew I was trapped from escaping. I could no longer go out through the front of the building. The police were already closing other escape routes off. Behind this store was a large and empty parking lot. The biggest downfall was there were really only two exits from where I was. Since the first one was rapidly being blocked off , I left the bag full of cartons and jumped over the six foot wooden fence. Which left me trapped inside the large and empty parking lot. I was guessing the police would block off the front and back of the store first.

I felt as long as they did what I suspected , I should have enough time to run to the other side of the parking lot. The reasoning behind doing this was that on the far side of this lot , there were a line of tall evergreen trees. There was also a small drop off from where the parking lot ended and the fence line formed. The drop was maybe a foot and a half. I dove down into the base of the fence , behind the trees. There was only around 10 to 15 inches of space between the tree trunks and the fence. It was the middle of the night and I used this darkness to my advantage. I started to advance my position from the back of the parking lot towards the front.

The police cars entered the empty parking lot with there headlights pointed towards the store which had been broken into. This was another advantage to me since the lights were not pointed in my direction. I continued to crawl on my knees and elbows. I edged foot by foot towards the exit of the parking lot. I knew I could not leave this area right now. The police would be looking for anyone on foot. Up at the entrance to this parking lot was a big prickly bush that I could hide under. That was my only focus. Besides not being seen crawling to the bush. It took a lifetime to get to the bush but in reality , it was probably closer to 20 minutes. I stayed under the bush and actually fell asleep.

When I woke up I was surprised the sun was just starting to rise. I was scared to move in fear of a police car being somewhere. I was completely under this bush and had no view of the area. So I started a very slow movement towards the house next to this parking lot. I had managed to evade the police up until now and fear was once again flowing through my cold body. As I inched forward about a foot a nervousness compelled me to stop. I still was not fully aware of my surroundings but if I had an instinct telling me to stop , I was not going to ignore it.

I was just at the edge of the bush I had crawled under and could see the front yard of the house , beside the parking lot. I stayed frozen waiting to hear any noises. Instead of hearing anything , I saw the front end of a car slowly rolling out of the driveway. The first thing I realized was I could not hear any noises from the car. The next was no white walls on the tires. I came to the conclusion this was probably a police car. As it slowly rolled past me I saw the decals identifying it as a police car. Another spike of adrenaline rushed through me. I was wide awake now !

I waited a good 4 or 5 minutes to see if any other vehicles were prowling the area. I was laughing to myself at how I was able to react and think in the moment. There should of been no way I could of gotten away from being arrested. I wondered to myself if they had caught Dave. I guessed there was only one way to find out. By getting my ass back to our safe house. I was a little scared to be running down the roads at this time of the morning. So I took my chances with jumping back yards until I was a few blocks away. I got really lucky when I came through a back yard and moving to the front of the house , I saw a taxi sitting on the side of the road with his engine running. There was no one inside the cab except the driver.

I approached the back door and opened it. I simple asked the driver if he was available. I wanted to beg the driver for a ride out of the area but was too afraid he would say no. So I played the role of not caring if he was willing to drive me somewhere or not. He asked me where I was heading ? I told him I need a ride to the Fernwood Inn. He said yes , I can do that. It was so comforting I did not have to jump over any more back yards in case someone noticed me and called the police. I think it was at that moment when I knew I had escaped the police even though they had me boxed in. They did not know it at the time but I knew it. My G.I. Joe tactical moves along side the fence and being situationally aware , not to mention a massive amount of patience , enabled me to escape an impossible situation.

As luck would have it , just as I was getting out of the cab at the Fernwood Inn Restaurant , a different cab was coming down a side street towards us. I paid the driver and walked across the street as the other cab pulled up to the intersection. Inside that cab was my partner and friend , Dave. His eyes were kind of bugging out of his head as he noticed who was in the middle of the street. We both had huge smiles on our faces as I opened the back door of his cab. Both of us knew better than to talk about the night before , in front of a stranger. Dave immediately told me the driver was a good friend of his , which put my mind at ease.

Immediately Dave asked me what happened. I did my best to explain what I went through to evade the police. He could not stop stating how crazy all of that sounded. He told me the two bags are in the trunk and he was just heading down to one of his buyers. I told him I have the cash from the registers and pulled it out from the front of my pants. We both started laughing harder than we were earlier. He said that is perfect because I do not have any money to pay my friend , the cab driver. I gave his friend a fifty to make sure he stays our friend and to hopefully make his friend my friend too. It is the little courtesies and acts of kindness that brings people to respect each other.

His cab driver was obviously hearing everything we were saying. He made on odd comment while Dave and I took in the magnitude of the moment. The driver stated to me that it sounds like you pulled a Rambo ! I knew what movie he was talking about but never really thought of it in that way. He of course was referring to John Rambo being chased down by the police in the woods and escaped into a rock tunnel and came out on the other side of the mountain. Which enabled him to evade capture and the police. After the comment I can not help myself from thinking of the situation as my Rambo moment.

Dave and I stayed friends for a couple more years and we eventually went our separate ways. We did a lot of crime together and have a huge amount of respect for each other. On one of the last scores we did with each other a lone police officer spotted us inside of a grocery store. We tried to run out the back door to get away from him but this cop tried shooting at us and I actually remember hearing the bullet buzzing past my right ear. He did state after his shot that he will take me down if I do not stop running. I evaluated my areas of escape and realized if he was serious , then I was going to be shot before I would be able to jump over a fence or get to the corner of one of the nearby buildings. So I resigned to the fact I was not willing to take the chance of being shot. I stopped and Dave froze as well. We were arrested and sentenced for the B&E. We were not sentenced to the same amount of time which brought about our separation. I still talk to him to this day. Enjoy a good laugh Dave because I know you remember that one !