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!!

I love a good bandwagon! I'm gonna jump on this one and put it out there that the cleaner, with a lot to lose, would surely have topped the bottle up with water so you didn't notice. The 13yr old may not have thought of that.

Good grief. The cleaner didn’t have to drink it at the time, she could have decanted it!
She might well have done that.

Of course it wasn’t the 13 year old - he’d have been very ill if he’d drunk that much.
He could have decanted it, just as easily as the cleaner, and shared it with friends.

Sounds like it was your 13yr old shared it with his mates!
I remember a bottle of Cointreau went missing on me
I went mad.turned out it was my younger brother who had taken it

It’s surely your 13 year old DS, who is experimenting, showing off at school to his mates and sharing it amongst them. I bet your DS’s friends have or are to be, been in their parents alcohol cupboard.
Have they had any sleepovers?
I’d place money on it being DS, age 13.

Team cleaner our cleanse drank our cherry brandy it does happen!

Have been dipping in and out of this thread, OP and might have missed bits. Have you actually asked your 13 year old son if he knows what happened to it? It might be a friend rather than him if you really think there is no way he would take it himself.

I did ask ds straight away and showed him the bottle. He was genuinely surprised and shocked. I then asked again, after everyone on here was saying it was him.

It wasn’t him and I know when he’s lying.

Additionally, looked in his room, bag nothing. No shifty behaviour, nothing at all.

The school is also a good at reporting, texting about behaviour and trouble.

He’s very sporty and goes to training football and boxing after school- so no friends over mon- thurs, no time to.

The gin was only in the house for 6 days and was new and put in a wine rack. It was unnoticeable until i took it out in the evening.

Dh is teetotal, and no visitors last week at all.

Not the 7 year old either.

It’s quite difficult obviously to articulate without evidence but we know it was the person that came into our home last week.

Lots of people saying how mean and awful it is to tell the company but quite contrary to my friends and family.

Also- just like safeguarding or any other small crime. Reporting to the necessary people, doesn’t mean being sacked or a consequence but rather, a need to Know basis. Each piece of a puzzle can make a picture.

I know I’m hated on here by many but that’s the truth of the matter.

You do not have any duty to anyone to contribute your possibly unfounded accusation (it's not a 'piece of a puzzle').

An accusation if you catch a thief red handed - report away.

But you are possibly accusing someone in the wrong and worse, you are proud of it and presenting it to yourself and on this thread as some sort of public service. This is pure hubris.

It’s quite difficult obviously to articulate without evidence but we know it was the person that came into our home last week.

Rule of thumb - if something is difficult to articulate because of lack of evidence, it's a sign that you shouldn't make an accusation.

@mathanxiety thank you for your strange __opinion.

You do not have any duty to anyone to contribute your possibly unfounded accusation (it's not a 'piece of a puzzle').

An accusation if you catch a thief red handed - report away.

Nonsense! People report things without knowing who exactly it was. People report suspicions. What a strange statement.

Clearly your way of dealing with things are different and your quite happy comfortable to not report things go that go missing unless you SEE them in the act. Right

The difficulty lies with debating and articulating with people sitting behind screens..

That last post by @mathanxiety cannot be serious about not reporting to necessary people.

If this statement were true, then people who have their cars and valuables stolen from their home should NOT report to the police because you DID NOT catch the thief in action (red handed). Of course it could be a ds, Dh, Dm, the kids

Absolute nonsense.

Yes the gin isn’t a police matter (obviously)

But if the same thing keeps happening and being reporting by many customers about this cleaner then the necessary action can me made.

You put it in the wine rack lying horizontal? It could have leaked out of the top! Working in a supermarket we were always told to stand spirits up as the twist off tops could easily leak unlike wine with corks in! (I'm another one who thinks the poor cleaner is NOT guilty!)

I actually agree with mathanxiety

You still accused someone without any proof whatsoever and you do sound proud of it.

It is possible as said above that it might have leaked but you don’t know that either. Nor did you consider it.

That to me is also strange but no matter.

You will no doubt think I hate you too because I disagreed with your actions. Quite strange in itself.

The difficulty lies with debating and articulating with people sitting behind screens..

Quite...

Totally agree with @numbersStation!
Bottles of spirits have a perforated screw open top and some of these can be faulty! Just a tiny fault can make them leak! I've seen many that are which have had to be sent back to the warehouse of the shop I work in! The alcohol also evaporates over time if the top is faulty! Shocking treatment towards the poor cleaner! I pity anyone that has to work in your home OP

Teetotal husband? Perfectly fine but does he have the occasional drink, could it have been him?

It definitely could have leaked out. It's fairly odourless compared to say leaked wine or beer.

Nothing weird about being teetotal?

Yes but if the husband is teetotal and had the occasional drink then surely he wouldn't have downed half a bottle of gin in 6 days. This thread is conjuring so many images of various people staggering around drunk in OP's house and trying to act normally!!

You lay a screw top spirits bottle on its side.......?
Also, you don't know you adding to any sort of 'piece to a puzzle'...you could just be falsely accusing an innocent woman trying to earn a living, casting a suspicion to her employer that could possibly cost her her job.
If this had happened on more than one occasion, or anything else had gone mysteriously missing during her time with you then I'd be thinking , but this was her first day?
By the way, many lives are ruined by false accusations, perhaps consider that?

Oh my god.

The bottle leaked. The cleaner cleaned.

You twit.

I understand if the trust is gone you have to switch cleaners. I hope your told cleaning company "some alcohol went missing, I have no proof it was the cleaner she may be completely innocent but as she is in my home unattended I would like to switch cleaners" rather than your post title. I think stating "the cleaner took my gin" is why you have had such negativity.

Spillage, teen or dh are all plausible too.

Why blame the cleaner??? It infuriates me when people point fingers without evidence and look down on hard working citizens! What right do you have to publicly accuse your cleaner of being a thief?? Why would it not be someone else 🤷‍♀️ Why do you instantly blame your cleaning lady (who incidentally, by your own admission, has worked extremely hard to give you a nice clean home)
😡😡😡😡

Well said 👏👏👏

Hi op I wouldn't mention anything to the company or cleaner and see if it goes missing on the day she Arrives . Check the bottle just before you leave and check it once she's gone you will know for sure then if it's here . Like I wrote the other day I have had so many people trying to catch me out 😂 hidden cameras a few thousand pound rolled up just sitting there in the bedroom . Very expensive jewellery . I clean houses for very well to do clients . But they do think the cleaner takes everything because people just jump to conclusions. Ohh it's a crap job she must be so skint . Lacks intelligence and just getting by . But Infact I earn more than double than what most people earn . Got my own car house go on lovely holidays every year . Weekends away can basically buy what I want . But that's only because I have gained trust with my customers and I am very good at what I do so they pay me a lot more and friends and family ask about the cleaner so I get more work 😆. You do need trust in your cleaner tho . I have become close friends with who I clean for . They trust me to clean there on my own and I would never in a million years steal anything from them. It has took nearly a year with some of them mind . Maybe get a camera ? X

Cracking up at your bizarre spin on this as your moral duty as a citizen OP as though you have performed a duty of care for the cleaner by dobbing her in based on essentially, your own perceived sixth sense that it was them and not your son. 'Justice' - honestly OP get a grip.

Change cleaners if you want, get a hidden camera, or clean the house yourself if you're that worried about risks to 'gin o' clock'

Shocking treatment towards the poor cleaner ☹

Of course it wasn’t the 13 year old - he’d have been very ill if he’d drunk that much.

Just because he took it, doesn't mean he drank not all straight away. He just decanted it into a water bottle.

Additionally, looked in his room, bag nothing. No shifty behaviour, nothing at all.

The school is also a good at reporting, texting about behaviour and trouble.

He’s very sporty and goes to training football and boxing after school- so no friends over mon- thurs, no time to.

Incredibly naive.