DD's stolen pe kit found its way back to us, with additional trainers. Moral dilemma?

[MyOneAndOnly]

It is long, sorry, bear with me...

Okay, it all started as an annoying situation last year but 6 months later now we've got our PE kit back, by a little miracle!

Last year DD was in reception class. In late June, with only 3 weeks to the end of the academic year, I had bought her an additional brand new PE kit due to a growth spurt. The kit contained a pair of new plimsols, a t-shirt and shorts which was purchased from the school, and it came with a PE bag as standard.

I made sure I wrote her name on all the items, all over, in case they were lost, they'd be returned.

Long story short, whilst messing about with each other's stuff, just minutes before the going-home-time, a specific child took her PE bag and then didn't give it back to her. That happened on the very last Thursday of the academic year, and the next day was the final day of the academic year.

On that day when I picked her up she told me what happened and I immediately talked to the teacher and TA, they promised to ask the parent of the child concerned. Then the next morning, I saw that child with her mum and got my DD to ask about her PE kit, other child denied taking it and even got rude to DD! So we left it at that.

At the beginning of this academic year, I bought a new PE kit and we forgot about the stolen PE kit. By the way, the child who stole the kit from DD is again in DD?s class this year

Anyway, DD was off sick before Christmas so she didn?t go to school on the very last week at all, meaning her PE kit was already at home, as it was sent home from the previous week? On the last day of school, DD?s teacher gave all the homework and reading book etc plus the cards etc in a plastic bag to our childminder so that we could collect it from the childminder later on? The plastic bad contained a PE kit too and when I inspected the PE kit to see whose kit it was, with the obvious intention of returning it to the owner, I saw my own handwriting all over the clothing items just as I had written them 6 monhts ago! It was DD?s stolen PE kit but the bag didn?t have the name label so teacher just saw the t-shirt & short with DD?s name and assumed it was hers. There was additional trainers in the bag too.

Now I am keeping this PE kit (except the dirty trainers), as it is rightfully ours from Reception class! DD confirmed to me that the trainers in the bag belonged to the child who took the kit from DD last year? Now, l am sure the other parents will enquire about their ?LOST? pe kit with the teacher this week. And they may be a bit upset about the trainers that was gone with the bag. That trainers are in the bin.

I thought for a moment, about giving only the trainers back ... It was a momentary consideration. Then I decided just to ignore the whole situation and just keep our items.

Moral dilemma about someone else?s trainers? Would you return it? How?

I think I would have returned the trainers.

I would have given the trainers back and told them I'd found them in the PE kit that DD 'lost' last term.

return to the lost property box. If the trainers arent labelled you could return them via the school office just saying they had been accidentally sent home by mistake but you dont know who's they are and could they be put in the lost property box. Thus you havent kept them and hopefully the other mum has the sense to look in the box for any missing items but out of your hands and her responsibility if they are not reclaimed.

Thanks purpleturtle but how to make it clear to keep the whole bag that had been used by this child since September, and only return the trainers? How?
A petty question maybe, but I don't want to get involved with these parents nor wish to go into discussions about my reasons to the teacher who is a different person and not last year's teacher...
Having to explain my reasons, to justify myself, I don't really want it. Dunno...

I don't think you can really talk in terms of theft about 5 year olds. Kit gets lost and misplaced all the time. By not returning the trainers, you are having the same disregard for someone else's property as the original person had for yours.

After posting my reply to purpleturtle, I refreshed it and saw other replies too and thanks for the wisdom all of you lovely ladies...
It has immediately became clear to me that yes, I can return them to the school...
Thank you.

Also - I used to sew name labels on the outside of the clothing so they were visible to teachers and everyone else. You won't get away with that in secondary but it seemed to solve the confusions in primary.

Scurryfunge, thanks for the reply... I was blaming the kid's mum more than anyone else as it was impossible for her not to notice the extra pe kit coming home with her child and my dd's name all over the bag label and the clothes and plimsolls etc. After being washed so may times since Sept, they are still clearly visible. Hence the reason for the items coming back to us.

But yes, you are right, not returning the trainers sits on my conscience heavily too.

I'll return the trainers via our childminder who takes DD to school and will explain it to the childminder who actually knows about our stolen kit from last year and she'll remember when I mention it now...

If teacher then decides to ask about it, then she'll do so but I doubt it.