He said, "Sure they work on the machines around here, why do you think the guy was in the laundry room, why do you think they were sitting on the front seat while this guy was in the laundry room working on the machines?"

I said, "I’m really starting to get tired of walking, let’s try a couple more and if they don’t work then we go home, OK?"

I guess I spoke too soon as the next machine that we tried them on worked. Larry stuck the key in the keyhole and turned it and it unlocked. Larry looked at me; I looked at him and said, "Let’s see what’s inside."

He pulled on the money box, it popped out and quarters flew. We were on our hands and knees picking up quarters they were everywhere. Larry got someone’s socks out of the dryer and started filling them up with quarters. We opened another one and it was full of dimes, we poured them into the socks. By the time we opened the last one the socks were full to the top so we had to put the quarters in our pockets; I had so many in mine that they were pulling my pants down. I had a couple of more words to add to my file, (fast, easy money.) We decided that we would go stash them somewhere and hit some more. We had a place in the storm drain that we could leave them. Every time we saw headlights we would hide behind a car until it passed. If a cop rolled up on us, there’s no way that I could hide my droopy pants and we would get caught. After stashing the quarters we hit eight more and they were packed too. We couldn’t find another bunch of socks, so we took a large beach towel and poured the quarters on it. Gathered the corners and made a makeshift sack. This thing was so heavy that we had to take turns carrying it. On the way back to the storm drain we saw a cop coming our way we both jumped into some shrubs until he went by. While wrapping ourselves around these bushes, we heard someone screaming and all kinds of other noises that’s probably why the cop was here. He stopped right in front of the building that we were hiding in the bushes, that was our luck. Larry said, "Keep close around the bushes so that he can’t see our feet."

The cop got out and started up the walkway that led to the building, my heart was beating so loud that I thought the cop would hear it. He didn’t see us and walked right by and went into the building.

Larry said, "Let’s get the hell out of here."

We got up and ran as fast as we could, with all these quarters. Finally we got to the storm drain and lit the two candles that we had hidden. We counted quarter after quarter, dime after dime and could not believe that there was seven hundred and fifty one dollars in quarters and dimes. There was no way that we could carry all these quarters home, so we decided to put them in our little, what we called our stash hole. These storm drains were big enough to walk in and nobody ever came down in them, except us, so we felt comfortable leaving the money there until we could come back with some quarter and dime rappers to put the change into. The next day we skipped school went to the bank and got some quarter and dime wrappers; then headed for the storm drain and wrapped change all day. When we were through there were so many rolls we did not know how we were

I Replied, "No I really don’t."

I started to get the picture and I liked what I saw, there were nothing but apartments here and many, many washing machines and dryers.

I asked, "When are we going to do this, I’m ready to do it right now, lets go."

Larry said, "We have to do this at night; or we’re going to get caught."

I asked, "What time are you planning on doing this?"

He said, "What time can you get out? What time do you have to be back?"

Trying to think of a way that I could get out of the apartment without my mother knowing about it. Then it came to me, I live on the first floor; why not just climb out the window after telling my mother good night? How hard can it be to get back in?

I told Larry, "I’ll meet you here at ten, don’t be late!"

He said, "I’ll be here, make sure that you are. Are you sure that you can get out?"

I told him, "Yes, I’ll get out, for sure."

I went home and waited until nine thirty; removed the screen in my bedroom window and jumped to the ground. I got to the meeting place early and didn’t want anybody to see me hanging around at that time of night. I walked up Larry’s hill toward his house, didn’t see him so I walked back down. By the time that I got to the bottom of the hill I heard Larry quietly call my name, I looked up the hill at him, and waved for him to come down to where I was.

When he got to the bottom he asked me, "Are you ready to make some real money?"

I told him, "I’m ready; let’s get out from under this street light and go."When we arrived at the first apartment building we went around to the side where there was a door that leads to the laundry room. There were only three washers and three dryers. Larry started trying the keys on the money box’s/coin box one after another; none of them worked.

I asked Larry, "Where did you say that you got this ring of keys?"

He replied, "I was walking home when I walked pass this truck that services the machines and collects the money, the window to the truck was opened and there on the front seat sat these keys that said, take me, so I reached in and snatched them and took off."

I told Larry, "They probably go to some other machines, there are so many around here we just had to find the ones that they work on; one set can’t open them all, lets go look."

We walked another block and tried them again with no luck. I asked Larry, "Are you sure that these keys work on the machines around here?"

was just the beginning for me; before it was all over with I could write a book about it. I took the money home and hid it. The next day we were down on the wall at the shopping center; all the kids were talking about the office that was broken into last night. Somebody said they heard the police talking, they think that it is professional burglars because of the way it was done.

I smiled and said, "Yeah, they hit these places all the time."

While we were sitting on the wall a couple of cops walked by and didn’t even give us a second look, but it put a big lump in my throat anyway.

I asked Larry, "You ready to go?" He said, "I sure am." And we took off down the street. When we arrived at the street that Larry lived on, Larry said, "Meet me here tomorrow before you go to school." I said that I would and left for home. Larry didn’t go to school much, yet he was smart beyond his age. I showed up the next morning, no Larry, this concerned me as Larry always showed up when he tells you that he is going be there, he was. This made me wonder, what if Larry got caught. He should be here, maybe his dad made him go to school. Well I can’t wait any more or I’ll be late for school. I could not concentrate on anything at school, my mind was just wondering all over the place. I started getting paranoid and thinking what if he rats me out, will he keep his mouth shut? After really thinking about it for a while, I convinced myself that he would not rat on me for anything. Larry was an, what they call an "Old School kind of guy." I didn’t have anything to worry about. I don’t know if he has been arrested or not. School was finally over, now I could go to Larry’s and try and find out what happened, how come he didn’t meet me like he said. I got to the street that he lived on and looked up the hill and saw Larry running down the hill towards me. He was running somewhat funny like he was lopsided or something.

When he got close, enough he said, "You’re not going to believe this."

He pulled this ring of keys out of his jacket. Larry was really excited; I’ve never seen him this excited. He had this great big smile on his face and his front tooth was just sparkling in the sun. I was almost afraid to ask him what they were for. There were a lot of strange looking keys; there were round keys that I have never seen before, it had to be a hundred or more.

Larry gave them to me, and said, "Do you know how much money you have in your hand right now?"

I replied, "No, I don’t even know what they go to, what are they for, or what do they open?"

Larry grabbed the keys out of my hand, stuck them in his shirt, and started dancing around. I didn’t know what they were to; I did know is that whatever they were to, it was something good, something to do with money, that’s what, made Larry the happiest, good Ole money.

He finally calmed down, and said, "Those go to washing machines and dryers, they go to the money boxes on washing machines and dryers, and do you have any idea of how much money we can make around here, especially with all of these apartments?"

I really didn’t think about why he could not just take a leak down here. Then I heard glass breaking. I didn’t know what to think, so I just stood there and waited.

A couple of minutes went by when I saw Larry stick his head over the railing and said, "You got to come up here."

I knew I shouldn’t, but I did. I climbed the stairs, Larry said, "Want some money?"

I asked, "What are you doing up here, and what money?"

He said, "Come on, I need you to give me boost up to the window."

I said, said, "Lets go before somebody comes and catches us."

He said, "It’s too early for anybody to be around; come on!"

Up on top of these stores there was a small parking lot. This parking lot was mainly used for the business’s that were up there. I looked down where Larry was standing in broken glass; it was all over the place.

I asked him, "Are you crazy or what?"

I looked through the broken window and saw some kind of office.

Larry said, "Give me a boost."

I was so scared that I gave him a little bit too much of a boost, and he went flying threw the window, and landed on the floor amongst all of the broken glass.

I asked, "Are you all right?"

He said, "Are you trying to kill me, a little boost, don’t you know what a little boost means?"

Larry was rummaging through the drawers when he gave out a holler.

He said, "I told you that there was some money in here, didn’t I?"

I asked, "How much is there, count it and see how much is there."

Larry told me, "We got to get out of here before some one comes; we’ll count the money over in the basement of the apartments."

Larry said, "Let’s go in that Laundry room there."

We pulled the wagon over to the side of the walk, and went to the basement. Larry started counting it, there was a lot there as a matter of fact, and there was two hundred and forty dollars there.

I said, "That’s the most money that I have ever seen, let me hold it."

Larry said, "Here, there is a lot more where that came from, wasn’t that easy?"

I replied, "It sure was!"

He counted out one hundred and twenty dollars and gave to me.

He said, "That’s for helping me that is your share."

This is definitely the easiest money that I’ve ever made, and yes I was hooked, hook line and sinker I had fallen for the life of a criminal and the easy money that goes with it. This

I said, "I have to get home now, I’ll see you tomorrow morning."

When I got home I asked my mother if I could go help this guy named Larry deliver papers. I told her that he would pay me to help him and maybe he could help me get my own paper route. She said that I could, and not to get in any trouble.

I asked her, "How are we going to get in trouble that early in the morning?"

I set my alarm clock for four thirty and turned in early so I could get up. It seamed as if I just shut my eyes when the alarm clock went off. I got out of bed and looked out the window; it was still dark, and cold. I got dressed and headed for the drop off corner. When I got there, Larry was folding the papers.

He said, "I didn’t think that you would come."

I said, "I told you that I would be here."

Larry stopped about half way up the street and asked, "Are you hungry, do want some donuts and chocolate milk?"

After doing all that walking up stairs; it made me hungry.

I replied, "Yes I’m starved, what’s open this early in the morning?"

Larry said, "I have my own little store," and laughed.

I asked, "How far is it?"

He smiled and said, "Its right across the street, up that alley."

We were behind the shopping center; the alley was how the delivers made their deliveries. The restaurant or the rest of the stores weren’t open that early in the morning, so the delivery was left by the back door.

We started walking up the alley, I asked Larry, "Suppose somebody comes out and catches us?"

Larry said, "There is nobody there this early in the morning, don’t worry I do it every Sunday morning and I haven’t got caught yet."

We walked up this narrow alley; it was only a one-story brick building. The walls were all brick on both sides with doors and windows. It was still dark, and so was this alley, it had a couple of lights, just enough so that you could see where you were walking. When we turned the corner of the alley I saw what Larry was talking about. There were all kinds of shelves on wheels that were loaded with just baked bread, pies, donuts and pastry. There were cases of milk, cream and orange juice.

Larry said, "Help yourself, take what ever you want."

Every Sunday we would stop for breakfast up the alley, one morning we were coming threw the breezeway, from delivering the bundles of papers to some of the stores in the shopping center.

Larry said, "Wait here I got to take a leak," and ran up the stairs.