Ice T admits that giving up theft was hard

11 April 2011

Ice-T

Ice T has revealed that even after finding fame, he found it hard to stop stealing and quit his life of crime.

  The hip-hop star was a street thief in Los Angeles as a teen and admits it was difficult to turn his back on crime even after scoring his first hit album Rhyme Pays in 1987.

  But Ice-T realised the error of his ways after a terrifying incident when he tried to steal a convertible roof from a parked Porsche - to replace his own sports car's damaged top - and got caught by a group of fans.

  In his new book Ice: A Memoir of Gangster Life and Redemption-from South Central to Hollywood, the star writes, "I was just ratcheting into the ­canvas tarp when I heard screams coming from the window of an apartment above. I thought I'd been busted.

  "It sank in when I realised a group of 10 or so kids were shouting things like, 'Ice-T! Ice-T! Yo, sign this Ice!' Instead of running, I hung around to sign for them. But that was the point it sank in that I couldn't do this any more. I was too ­famous to keep stealing."