Stealing

[Albertine2012]

my teenage son has Asperger Syndrome. His obsession seems to be stealing money from us (mostly me) I have tried everything to get him to stop him doing this, hiding my bag, keeping money on me, locking my bedroom door, explaining to him how much trouble he can be in if caught stealing etc. We give him money every week but is never seems to satisfy his need and the stealing is like an addiction he can stop. We have been told to call the police and report him but cant bring oursleves to do that even tho we hate what he is doing. Any helpful suggestions?

[quoteunquote]

when he's out one day empty his entire room of his belonging, store everything out of sight,

when he comes home and reacts, ask him calmly how he feels about his things being taken, ask him to describe what it feels like,

I'm sure I will be shot down for this, but I do know several desperate mothers who have ended up resorting to this as a way of making their asperger offspring comprehending what it is they are doing,

it's a very difficult one to nip in the bud, once started, and if not stopped can get them into serious trouble.

[MedusaIsHavingABadHairDay]

Also get a combination safe (not a key one..easy to steal keys) and keep everything in there..so there is NEVER an opportunity to steal. We had to do this some years ago and it really helped.

[flow4]

I tried the tactic of taking everything away from him, but he twisted that round and basically said "See, you steal things from me, so I can steal from you and you can't complain"... :( It might not work with your son anyway: even non-autistic teenagers have trouble with empathy.

But you can stop him stealing from you... I had locks fitted on bedroom doors about 6 months ago. I now lock up everything valuable in my room, always - even if I'm just popping to the loo. I keep the key in my pocket at all times. Occasionally, I'll leave something in the boot of the car (beer, for instance) and make sure I take my car key to bed with me.