I can't say I'm particularly proud of the things I've "gotten away with"---if stealth or pretense was involved, it usually meant I was up to no good. But there was one incident....

In my early twenties I was charged with drug possession (ecstasy). I was given probation, and part of the requirement of my probation was to attend and graduate a substance abuse class. Well, I attended, and should have graduated---during the final review with my appointed therapist, I was informed that despite having satisfied the requirements of my class, my therapist was still going to recommend that I seek further treatment. Her reason? She didn't feel that she had "gotten through" to me. In short, my probation would be violated. The kicker was that I was one month away from the end of my probation period. This woman knew that. I have no doubt in my mind that her issue with me was personal (I had noted that she would periodically show up for class extremely bleary eyed and frazzled, and unwisely commented on the fact that she appeared to be nursing a hangover---a big no no for the "therapists" the county hired to teach the sub abuse classes--the majority of whom were former 'addicts' themselves).

I had a couple of options. I could continue going to classes and probably be forced to endure an extended probation period if the judge didn't simply violate my probation, or I could pay for private treatment, and find a therapist willing to take me on as a patient, and hope that this would satisfy my probation requirements. Well, the latter was much more difficult than one would think--not to mention, I was a twenty year old kid with no health care, and certainly without the couple hundred / hour it cost just to walk in the door at any of the private rehab facilities I contacted. So I forged documents from a small, privately run clinic I found online in the area. I copied the header on their site, wrote a letter to my p.o. claiming they had accepted my application and would be working with me on a one on one basis, and posted the phone numbers / email addy listed on the site. Now, here's where the story gets interesting: I had my final review with my probation officer--he was closing out my case. Just as I was about to leave his office, he pulls out the letter from my alleged therapist, and basically says, "oops--I forgot to call and verify your ongoing treatment, one minute"...well, folks, in an amazing happenstance of fifty different types of good luck coming together to save my ass, when he called the (entirely legit) number listed on the letter, he received a message stating that the office had been shut for repairs for a period of two weeks. I'd never called the number--I hadn't been aware of this. I could hear the message playing from where I sat in his office. He shrugged, told me the case was shut, and to have a good life.