I'm a little torn on some of this stuff. Employers over the last two decades have not respected personal time from me in most cases. They have a definition of personal time being when I'm not needed/wanted.

I've written about lots of things at work, even used scripts in articles that I built at work. Or was it used scripts at work that I built in articles?

The line blurs. I'd argue that some of the contacts I make at work are not completely work related. They're personal as well. If I take those contacts, without depriving my former company of them, am I stealing? If I don't use them for work issues? If I take scripts that I might reuse at a new job, am I stealing? When is it work-for-hire, when is it my work, when is it something that is so open that I can use it freely elsewhere?

I think having code, emails, contacts, etc. at home is not necessarily theft. If you use it to somehow harm the company, compete with them, then it probably is. If it's reference material, or used for non-commercial/competing purposes, or used in another non-competitive situation, I'm not sure it is.