Help- cleaner drank my gin!

[kayde12]

Hi all,
I’m new to mumsnet, but would really love some advice!

I’ve just signed up to a cleaning company and had my first clean, which I was thrilled about.
Then I noticed that half of my bottle of pink drink has gone!
I only got the bottle given to me as a gift last week from my sister in law.
My Dh doesn’t drink and I have my two ds in the house.
It was the cleaner definitely!
The company have been awful at getting back to me and sent me a poor email saying she said she didn’t drink it and was too early in the morning.

I feel really gutted and not sure how to move forward or get some sort of justice!!

Lol. Defo the 13 year old.

Half a bottle of gin is 13 or 20 units, depending on how big the bottle is. Drinking that much in 2 hours would leave most people barely able to stand.

Def your son. The cleaner would have been way too busy to be necking neat gin. also, even if she had just had a sip any self-respecting alcoholic knows you would top the bottle up with a wee bit of water so it was not noticed. She would not risk it on the first day either - esp as loads of people have cameras these days... not worth it

I would assume I'd put it somewhere in the house and forgotten where. Have you had a good look around? In all your cupboards? Have you done a big declutter recently? Could it have been sent out to the charity shop by mistake? Dunno, neither 'suspect' seems probable.

'Why is everyone assuming it’s the kid? '
I worked on a general Paeds ward as a Paediatric nurse in a middle class lovely little market town. You would not believe the amount of Teens we had in for overnight OBs because they were as drunk as a Lord. It was every weekend and much worse in the Summer hols.

I would assume I'd put it somewhere in the house and forgotten where

Where would you accidentally put half a bottle of gin when the other half is in the bottle?

Unless you have evidence I would suggest you be very careful telling their employer they stole it, you could find yourself taken to court.

That aside, half a bottle of gin is a huge amount to drink, if they wanted a drink they would have poured one out. Given half a bottle is what £6-£10 it's not in the cleaners interest. Probably your teenager.

To suspect someone, you would need grounds to suspect them. What are your legitimate grounds ?

I find it mad how many people employ cleaners on Mumsnet 🤣

@NamedyChangedy you think OP decanted half the bottle and sent it to a charity shop or lost it in the house? She still has the bottle with half the gin in it

You must all know some wild 13 year olds, none of us even thought about drinking until we were 17!

My pink gin dissappeared a few months ago. I don't have a cleaner but I do have two fifteen year olds.

I think mine evaporated

Have we considered that the cleaner asked all her friends round for a party? Have the nibbles been raided too?

Yup have happened to a friend....cleaner brought a 'waterbottle'....which she would drink/empty and then would fill up with Vodka, Gin or Rum!! He fitted a camera and caught her. She was also eating loads of stuff out the fridge. Really puts you off having a cleaner.

I was 14 when I decided to empty out half my dads vodka from the bottle into a water bottle! I then refilled his vodka with water thinking he wouldn’t notice. Myself and my friends went down to the park and got plastered. Not my finest moment and I really regretted it the next day when I was not only grounded but had the worst hangover. My mum refused to give me painkillers and told me to remember the feeling the next time I wanted a drink

*OP, you CANNOT go around accusing others of stealing unless you have categoric proof. It’s an awful thing to be accused of, it’s virtually impossible to prove you are innocent most of the time and it can have really serious consequences for somebody’s employment.

You suspected her, you did not know and she is not the only potential suspect. If you suspected her you could have taken steps to see what was happening going forward, or you could have cancelled the agency saying you no longer needed them. Mud sticks, and you may well have sullied the reputation of someone who is innocent. That’s an appalling thing to do.

“Live and learn?” I really hope you do going forward.*
100% agree with this!

Stranger things have happened! (In my house, anyway! )

Definitely the 13 year old, I would put my bets on it 😂 next time tell him to take the clear stuff and top it up with water, far less obvious, kids these days don't have a clue 🤦‍♀️😂

Haha your not paying her enough

Yup, I'm #team7yrold too. 7 yr olds are also notoriously unaware of the cost of gin or the preciousness of adult presents.

I seriously doubt any adult - on their first day in a new job - would break into a fresh unopened bottle of anything and take half. It's far, far too noticeable, probably more so than nicking the whole thing.

Clearly Bluntness100 necked the gin.

This thread is the pinnacle of Mumsnet CF and that's just the comments.

Why do teenagers get blamed for everything? Think about it people, of course it's the cleaner.

Gin is an AWFUL drink and must be mixed properly or it's virtually undrinkable (and I drink pretty much anything) most teenagers would take one sip and never touch the stuff again.... they wouldn't know where to start drinking that goblin piss.

Gin is for seasoned gin drinkers, not for teenagers.... vodka, yes, rum, deffo but gin? Nope.

It's deffo not the teenagers and as for the cleaners: the ones I used to know were always in the drinks cabinets, eating food and christ knows what else.

Why do you lot always have to argue against the OP'S?

Where is OP today? Has she necked the other half bottle and is lying paralytic on the sofa with the Lady cleaner?

When I was 14 we had a cleaner who me and my brother (16 at the time) found passed out drunk on my parents bed. She had been drinking a rather expensive bottle of brandy my father had been given. If we hadn't found her we would have been blamed and let's be honest here, one of us would have had it

'If I have suspected that it was the cleaner, therefore trust has been broken. How can one move forward and continue with the same cleaner?'

Now, in my particular version of reality, trust is broken by someone being provably untrustworthy. Maybe before you let anyone else in your house you might get an evidence kit so you can take DNA samples, check for fingerprints etc. Might work best in the alternative reality you live in.

When I used to work in bars abroad we’d use local gin to clean the bar as it was cheaper and more effective - made it shine beautifully with no residue. Is your cleaner from a resort area of Europe OP 😆

I had a cleaner through an agency once. Left her a nice note saying grab a drink if she wanted one etc. She drank 4 bottles of Becks!