Originally Posted by
spladle29
I know, it looks and sounds terrible - so much worse than it actually was. To sum up the situation, I was a senior in high school in a car with some buddies and we ran out of gas. None of us had any money, so we had to park and wait for someone to come lend us a hand. We were about 45 minutes from our hometown, and it was hot out. Instead of sit in this packed car, me and another kid I was with got out and started walking to a mall that was about a block away. We took a shortcut through a parking lot to avoid a busy street, and next thing I knew (this was completely unexpected, and I had never been in a situation like this before) the kid I was with tried to open a car door and scrap change out of cupholders to get enough gas money to get us home. I kind of panicked and didn't know what to do, I stayed distant from him and did not touch anything but I did stay in the parking lot. Someone saw us and called police saying 2 kids were stealing out of cars. Cops came and arrested us. I never had to go to court, they reviewed surveillance tapes and pulled fingerprints from the car doors, and clearly found that I was not involved and the case was dismissed. But my record will forever have an attempted burglary charge on it, even if it is dismissed.
Some of the applications still ask about “arrests” in addition to “convictions”. When you encounter some, answer honestly. Have ALL of the paperwork ready for your criminal charge dispositions to be presented at your interview.
The #3/#4 combo could raise some eyebrows to folks.
Your best bet will be to get a job with one of the AA Wholly Owned regionals so you’ve got a flow to a legacy in your back pocket. Keep your nose clean, don’t fail any checkrides/orals (more than 2 and it’s tough to legitimize hiring you) and find someone who works at the WO you’re targeting to write you a referral for you...