# a question about "running"



## hellomonday (Jan 13, 2008)

im planning on traveling away, as in out of state really really soon, as soon as its not as freezing. and im wondering, what happens to me if i get caught out of state as a "runaway," i mean, i havent really gotten into trouble with any sort of authority before about this, but then again ive only traveled in the state that im in for the most part. i guess i just dont know what the consequences of being caught as a runaway are, and i dont think ive seen it anywhere on here before.
just wondering if anybody knows anything about this, because i dont and probably should.


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## Labea (Jan 14, 2008)

Being a runaway is not illegal, so unless your traspassing or doing something illegal you wont get sent to juvi. You need to have a back up plan and be relentless to cops when they hassle you, and try not to break. have a fool-proof alias, and dont worry about making up your whole eggsistance. Your one in a million with a mother named carol, or whatever.

you will most likely be sent to an assessment center, which is like a day care with awesome junk food, where they will get you a social worker or whatever they are called. Then they will contact your parents and try to get you an airplane ticket back home. If it takes longer than a day to get a ticket, they will probably put you in a foster home until they get the ticket. But once your in the system as a runaway, if you get caught again, they might just stick you in a foster home instead of sending you back home. 

if you want more specifics just asked. this happened to me in Berkley. its not the same way for everyone though.


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## hellomonday (Jan 14, 2008)

so basically, they cant do anything if i havent done anything and this is just something people are telling me to try and make me not go?


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## hellomonday (Jan 14, 2008)

yeah, i dont really want to think of it as "running away," because its not like ill never ever ever come back, and im not really leaving with any grudges, but ive had many an argument with my dad as to why i do anything i do and he says he will report me as a runaway if he has so he wont have to be responsible for me if i do fuck up, and i dont blame him. i told him he could just emancipate me but he wont do it.


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## Mouse (Jan 14, 2008)

they'll just ship you back home so you can run away again. just don't get caught doing other stuff cuz they'll you'll be shipped back home with a court case to go to.


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## Labea (Jan 14, 2008)

its not illegal, but they will still send you home. its not illegal because some kids runaway for good reasons, such as abusive parents, etc. so it would be a bad idea to punish a person for running away. apparently a three year old ran away from home here the other day and he was found with severe burn, some old, some fresh. he was taken to the hospital andd said his mommy put him in the oven when he was naughty. some people have reasons to run away.
i never had a court case.... i just had a social worker who kept calling trying to sell my mom herbal medicines.


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## rootsong (Jan 14, 2008)

i knew a "runaway" for several years. she didn't have any trouble being 2000 miles from home, except for when she caught shoplifting. then, her mother was called, and since her mom didn't know where she was she flew down, but my friend wouldn't leave with her, so she stayed ran-away. as i understand it, you won't get too much shit so long as you're not getting into trouble; this is much easier accomplished, obviously, if you have a place to go and steady circumstances under which to exist until you're a legal adult.

travelling via hitchhiking, etc., could complicate circumstances, but most hitch-hiking harassments certainly don't result in extensive indentity investigations.

but yea, if you get into any trouble THEN they have to process you, which definitely involves finding out who the hell you are, and taking it from there.

i sort of ran away when i was 16, and although i didn't leave the county, i didn't have any trouble as long as a stayed out of trouble.


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## Mouse (Jan 14, 2008)

Labea said:


> its not illegal, but they will still send you home. its not illegal because some kids runaway for good reasons, such as abusive parents, etc. so it would be a bad idea to punish a person for running away. apparently a three year old ran away from home here the other day and he was found with severe burn, some old, some fresh. he was taken to the hospital andd said his mommy put him in the oven when he was naughty. some people have reasons to run away.
> i never had a court case.... i just had a social worker who kept calling trying to sell my mom herbal medicines.




I know it's not illegal thats why I said "don't get caught doing OHTER STUFF" whihc would be illegal and get your sent to jail. just getting caught runing away is no big deal. but if they pull you infor stealing 40z from the 7-11 you're in trouble


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## Labea (Jan 15, 2008)

i tried several times to get greyhounds, but they wanted I.D. and stuff and i just never managed to get any hookups. strangly, i hitched mostly from denver to slo, and never had trouble with cops while hitching.


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## dirtyfacedan (Jan 15, 2008)

Labea said:


> Being a runaway is not illegal,........once your in the system as a runaway, if you get caught again, they might just stick you in a foster home...



True. But keep running away from foster homes, and the fuckers (at least in BC Canada) will lock you up. Not in a jail, but in a "treatment center for youth", a jail on the same property as the youth jail, but not called a jail. Fuckers.


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## Labea (Jan 15, 2008)

yeah thats the part that sucks, if you keep running away and getting caught they will eventually put you in some kind of treatment center shit.


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## Dillinger (Jan 15, 2008)

Don't get caught you won't have to worry. =P
All you'll get is a ride home.
Even doing something illegal I'm sure.
Unless of course you're burning down buildings or something of the sort.
Plan this out... Think hard about it. Can it wait till you're 17/18?


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## Dillinger (Jan 16, 2008)

Once fucking again Arrow....
Agreed.


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## dirtyfacedan (Jan 16, 2008)

I'll back it up with a 3rd agreed!


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## Mouse (Jan 16, 2008)

I must agree as well.

I went through the whole hating my partens shit and after spending a lot of time on the streets I realized "fuck, I had it good back home." I'm old enough now to respect the effort my family puts into taking care of eachother.


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## hellomonday (Jan 17, 2008)

i really do appreciate everything my parents have done for me. im trying to get as many perspectives on it as i can, because i really dont want to fuck everything up between us by doing this. id like to stay close as i can with them, its just that we dont agree on everything, and you know, nobody agrees on everything, and we just happen to disagree on a couple really big life changing things, and im having trouble making sense to them i guess. i want to tell them that i am going to do what im going to do in the clearest, least arrogant sounding way that i can. and its really hard. im giving myself time to think about how to just work "beside them not "with" or "against them", and thats really tricky too. gahhh


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## Mouse (Jan 17, 2008)

in all honesty, cutting the apron strings, prooving you can survive on your own, and not being an asshole will make your parents think you're not so stupid and you can handle making your own decisions. running away is kind of a way to show this but not entirely the best. but if you think you can do it, do what you will. just don't come crawling back all battered and bruised and asking for help as soon as things go bad. that'll just proove them right.


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## Labea (Jan 17, 2008)

Mouse said:


> in all honesty, cutting the apron strings, prooving you can survive on your own, and not being an asshole will make your parents think you're not so stupid and you can handle making your own decisions. running away is kind of a way to show this but not entirely the best. but if you think you can do it, do what you will. just don't come crawling back all battered and bruised and asking for help as soon as things go bad. that'll just proove them right.



Yeah, me running away pretty much helped in alot of ways.

1.) i proved i can take care of myself
2.) it helped my parents to realize what lengths i was willing to go through to get away from them, which helped them figure out what they had overall done to me, and not done.

but then me getting caught kind of ruined it for both parties, in a way, but i dont regret more then a few minor things i did.

my moms understands, but the only thing i have proven to my dad is that i am insane. sweet.


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## hellomonday (Jan 17, 2008)

> my moms understands, but the only thing i have proven to my dad is that i am insane. sweet.


my dad already thinks im really insane,haha i think hes insane, i probably inherited the trait from him. good god. full circle.


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## dirtyfacedan (Jan 18, 2008)

I don't want to tell you a big sob story, as we all have one. I usually keep this to myself. It might be useful here though. I had been in Foster homes since I was 3, my mother leaving my father just before the cops took me into government care. My mother, god bless her soul..has always been a junkie. (no pity needed, thanks). I had many foster homes, and was one fucked up kid. I had been kicked out of most schools by the end of a school year. Some of my foster homes were fucked, the usual shit, sexual/mental abuse..the works. Some were OK...to much structure for me, some to little. There were a few that were outstanding. One in particular was a good caring family...one i was part of for almost 3 years. I was so fucking angry at the world, and felling sorry for myself that i rejected them with all my energy. I didn't realize what a wonderful gift they had given to me. I ran away so much that they started to move me around to other temporary foster homes...then the treatment centers..hospital wards..group homes. I though i liked the group homes, going AWOL, getting laid, drunk...being free was the best thing. I forgot i was a child, and needed the family love i had been offered. Damn. The other foster kids in the best home I had been in told me they never treated any other foster kid's, and even their own kids the same (after i had rejected them so hard) any more. I had burned them. I can't change what is, but can look after myself (I'm not alway good at this), and offer love to the right people, and grow as a person, and learn from my mistakes. Most kids resent their parent's for whatever reason, people are not perfect. Sometimes we are young and blind to the fact the world is much different than we perceive it to be. As children we often think our parents are perfect, and as we get older we realize this is far from the truth. It pisses us off. Nobodys perfect....... I'd like to meet him one day.


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## hellomonday (Jan 18, 2008)

```
I seen this girl at work (fast food joint) call her mom and start bitching "IM STAYING AT HER HOUSE TONIGHT I DONT CARE WAHT YOU SAY!!! NO MOM!! IM DOING WAHT I WANT!!" and i step'd back and was like.... wow. That was me in a way back in the day. I never really was like that, but still i felt some sort of childish connection.
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when i hear people interact like this with thier parents, i just feel really bad for them both. i learned really fast when i was growing up that if you dont respect people you will not be respected, and im fortunate to have a lot of trust and respect from my parents, because for a really large portion of my life i tried really hard to get it. now its like im on another planet and they think im going down the "wrong path" blah blah, i wont be able to take care of myself etc etc, and the only way i think ill be able to prove i can is if i do it



just so everybody knows, thanks for sharing all this stuff, i appreciate it.


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## jack ransom (Jan 21, 2008)

I got into a bit of trouble hitchhiking when I was 17 despite having my mom's permission. I was out of state. definitely stay under the radar and be prepared to give some pretty detailed fake information ( a cousin, perhaps?) qualifying you as an adult. 

you should think twice about how you're going to survive. cities are rough places for the inexperienced. I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt that you have ample reason to leave, and maybe you'll only be gone for a few months and then come home. but you should just remember that meeting really basic necessities can be difficult without a job or a place to sleep. hell, I do it all the time but I've been working at it for awhile. 

A few pieces of advice that you probably dont need but are worth repeating: 

don't rely on other totally shady homeless kids to take you in. you will pick up their habits and they're usually bad ones.

stay the fuck away from hard drugs. this shit will either kill you or make your life miserable. don't touch them. my heart breaks a little every time I see a teenager strung out on dope and its just a really bad scene. 

always have condoms. you're approaching an age (maybe you've already made it there, who knows) where people will be moving quickly from french kissing to just straight up doing it. you never know when you're going to jump in the sack so be prepared for it. pregnancy and diseases will really put a damper on your escapades. 

good luck duder. let us all know what you decide to do and how it works out for you.


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## Clit Comander (Jan 24, 2008)

Throw away ur ID kick it with people who are older, and if you get stopped tell em a fake name/ info make sure ya no it well cause they'll ask more than once. ya should be fine. but every once in a while you'll meet a dickhead cop who is bored shitless and will fiqure ya out. then ya get sent home and do it again.


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## Labea (Jan 24, 2008)

Clit Comander said:


> then ya get sent home and do it again.



unless you get sent to alaska haha


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## MilkaNoobie (Jul 16, 2016)

i grew up in the fosfer care system ...not a good place to be... if you do run away DO NOT give false identity as some here have suggested as that is illegal and could end you up in juvenille detention or even jail depending on your age. you will be shipped back home if caught and you told the truth and were not doing anything illegal and most likley with a social worker that will drop in and monitor you and your family. when i was caught they drove me county to county border in the back of a cop car and handing me off to other police officrs at the county border until i was back.


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