Mobile hairdresser stole very expensive headphones from house. What should I do?

[losenotloose]

I'm so angry and upset. They were my son's only birthday present. I'd never used a mobile hairdresser before and found her card in a local coffee shop. Stupidly I left the room for no more than 1 minute. We realised they were missing this morning and have searched high and low. He isn't allowed to take them out of the house so could not have gone missing out side. What can I do?

Get in touch with her, ask her uf she picked them up by mistake while packing her stuff as you want to check before making a statement to the police.

Say exactly what endofthelinefinally said. Then she will know you will be going to the police, so hopefully will hand them back with the excuse that they were accidentally packed away with her bits.

Yes, great suggestion from @endofthelinefinally.

Mention you have a nanny cam in your house and say you saw her accidentally pick them up. Say, ‘I’m sure it was a mistake’

You are of course 100% sure that they were is your house and DS hasn’t lost them though?

Thing is you can’t prove she’s taken them? You’ve only noticed the day after she’s been, not immediately after she’s been in the house so you can’t really prove it? So not a huge amount really?

I dont think you can say you saw her unless you are absolutely certain.

Absolutely what endoftheline suggested. Say that you have to report it to the police to claim on your insurance.

Re the nanny cam that could make you look really stupid especially if she didn’t actually take them?!

If you prewarn her she’ll just get rid of them. I can’t imagine she’d own up to it, even accidentally. What an awful thing to do!

Make very sure they are not in your house anywhere, or ds didn’t take them outside and lose them before you say anything to the hairdresser. I’d be very surprised if she had taken them, risking her reputation and business over a pair of headphones.

I'd be more inclined to think your son had taken them out of the house in spite of the rules and lost them.

Why would she steal something when her business will depend on word of mouth?

“He isn’t allowed to take them outside..” - so he knows just how cross you would be if he did and he lost them?
By all means get in touch and ask if she could check through and see if she accidentally swept them up with her stuff when clearing up, but you would be very unreasonable to accuse or or even presume she took them. It would be very brazen to do so.
They have probably been mislaid.

I agree with pp who are saying you dont actually know she took them.

I also think it's more likely your son isnt owning up to losing them

Why are you assuming she took them? Did you know for sure that they

That they were in the room?

how old is ds ? just because he's been told not to take them out doesn't mean he hasn't. kids do break the rules sometimes, have a chat with him too.
caught on nanny cam ? if only.

Really uncomfortable about the OP making accusations without any evidence.

Having worked in the care industry I've seen many allegations like this, and it almost always transpires that there is another explanation, usually that the item has been misplaced or a relative had it.

This sounds wildly unlikely. As others have said, are you sure they haven’t been lost?

What age is DS?
What has he said about this?

Thanks for all the replies. I'll speak to her first and go from there. Ds is 13 and unlikely as it might sound I believe he wouldn't take them out of the house because he knows how common it is to get robbed where we live. We'll have to do another thorough search of the house.

A girl with whom I went to school broke a family heirloom she wasn’t supposed to touch when she was eight.

She blamed the family’s cleaner

The cleaner was sacked.

Old school friend is still plagued with guilt.

So yeah... most importantly you have absolutely no evidence do be cautious.

It makes no sense the hairdresser would do this.

It’s a very visible item and why would she risk her business?

A repeat customer + word of mouth is more valuable than any headphones.

It makes more sense a child would try and cover up the fact he broke the rules and it went wrong.

Addendum:

If you really were out of the room for a minute, it would have been incredibly audacious and risky for her to take them, knowing you’d be back at any second.

13 is pretty much the right age to be pushing boundaries and wanting to be stunting with his headphones.

I know we all want to think the best of our children, but they do make mistakes like this.

If he knew how angry and upset you’d be, a clumsy ill thought through cover up feels more likely to me.

Totally ring and ask if she scooped them up by mistake first

If you accuse her of stealing ,be prepared for her to be outraged and tell everyone.

Whenever I buy something expensive, I use a credit card that has purchase protection which reimburses the cost if stolen

“Purchase protection provides reimbursement or repair for an item purchased with your card in the event of theft or accidental damage. This benefit is provided by ALL Chase credit cards.”

Perhaps you have this as an option too?