Our legal system has something called the statute of limitations.
This means that if you commit a crime and enough time passes when nobody even notices the crime was committed, then you cannot be legally charged for it.
It depends entirely on what type of crime you commit, of course, because for things like assault and murder there is no statute of limitations. For less harmful offenses, sometimes you can just “run out the clock” and get away with whatever you did! That is what happened to me, because 7 years ago I stole a couple of air conditioners, and finally the statute of limitations has elapsed. This means I can never be charged with a crime for stealing those air conditioners, even though it was a crime and I freely admit to doing it. I don’t feel guilty about it, because this was a Robin Hood situation of stealing an air conditioner from a rich person who didn’t need it, and giving it to a poor person – myself. The next week I went to a different house and stole another window-mounted air conditioner for my sister, who really needed one. I only selected the vacation homes of people who lived out of state, because they usually had a central HVAC as well as a smaller window-mounted one. Overall I wound up stealing four different air conditioners, but I never profited off of them, I just stole them for people who really needed them. When you spend a summer down south you will understand why an air conditioner is a need and not a luxury item.