“Run like you stole something” is a saying that has been printed on many posters. The saying means to run fast; if you’re stealing something, you don’t want to get caught. “He yelled, ‘Now run like you stole something’” was cited in print in 1988.
 
Although the saying has been associated with running, there have been many other applications. “Run like you stole something” was said by a golfer (cited in print since at least 1994) to the golf ball that was just hit for a long shot. The expression was cited in The Wall Street Journal in 1999, when it referred to the run-up of a stock’s price. In 2004, Lance Armstrong said this to a cycling teammate during the Tour de France race.
 
     
Google Books
Dogleg Madness
By Mike Bryan
New York, NY: The Atlantic Monthly Press
1988
Pg. 183:
He yelled, “Now run like you stole something.”
 
GOogle Groups: rec.sport.golf
“Run like you stole something”
J. Martin Cassady Jr.
8/2/94
I think we have to add this to the “Dictionary Of Golf Slang.” Dickie Pride said it after hitting his tee shot on the 18th at the FedEx (not sure if it was in the playoff or not.) “Run like you stole something”, that is.
 
Google Groups: rec.sport.golf
Favorite “Golf-isms”?
John D. Miller
5/17/96
.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) (Dave Tutelman) wrote:
QUOTE
In article <3197fb4f….@news.mindspring.com>,
Jeff Rogers

wrote:
>... My buddy took a massive swing from the
>fairway, but his ball never got more than a foot off the ground—you
>know the type, bouncing for all they are worth toward the green—
>The stranger in our foursome looked at the ball and said, “Run,
>Forrest, Run!!”  It works well with a south Georgia accent…

Under similar circumstances:
“Run like you stole something!”
UNQUOTE
   
The Wall Street Journal
LEADER
Single-Stock Swappers Trade One Stock and One Stock Only
By BRYAN GRULEY Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
Updated Dec. 7, 1999 12:01 a.m. ET
(...)
This week in September, he will make more than $40,000 trading more than a dozen stocks. In one blur of keystrokes, he buys 1,500 to 2,700 shares each of Yahoo, eBay , Qualcomm and five other tech stocks. “Come on, eBay, run like you stole something,” he goads. In 14 minutes he sells it all off, netting $6,000.
 
ClutchFans
Talking Texan…
davo
12-19-2000, 09:57 AM
Uglier than a box full of a$$holes
She had a face like a smashed crab.
(When referring to a golf shot) Run ya ba$tard, run like you stole something!
 
OCLC WorldCat record
Waverley Park : Matthew Nicholson and Justin Kemp : Run like you stole something
Author: Hay, Roy
Publisher: 3RRR Radio 2001-04-21
Edition/Format:   Downloadable archival material : English
 
Google Books
Circa
By Aden Fisher
Published by author
2002
Pg. 56:
“You run like you stole something, Tarrant!” Coach Broughny shouted
 
OCLC WorldCat record
Run like you stole something
Author: Damian Farrow; Jos Tan; Justin Kemp
Publisher: Crows Nest, NSW : Allen & Unwin, 2003.
Edition/Format:   eBook : Document : English
 
23 July 2004, Altoona (PA) Mirror, “Tour de France: Armstrong gearing up to make Tour history” (AP), pg. D3:
“I said, ‘How fast can you go down- and he said, ‘I go downhill real fast.’ He said, ‘Can I do it?’ And I said, ‘Safe you can do it.’ Then I told him, ‘Run like you stole something, Floyd.’”
(Lance Armstrong to Floyd Landis—ed.)
 
Twitter
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‏@b_schmitt17
running the turkey trot and I decide to be a smartass &yell “run like you stole something” and then we all start hearing sirens hahaha oops
Eau Claire, WI
9:00 AM - 27 Nov 2014