What would you think if these things went missing from your home

[Eastie77Returns]

A gold chain
A pair of leggings
A woman’s brand new hoodie (quite pricey, premiere league team branded)
A canvas tote bag

The chain was not expensive, left in a jewellery box and suddenly disappeared. The leggings were compression ones, bought to help address a health issue and about £100. Tote bag a few quid.

The only person who regularly comes to our house is our weekly cleaner. She is brilliant and I’m really struggling to imagine her taking this stuff but I literally have no idea where the items could be. The hoodie and leggings were left drying on a heated dryer and have vanieshed.

Believe me, I have spoken to dozens of others. Unfortunately, none of them want only 3 or 4 days a month, which is all we need. Not for much longer, we're moving. It frustrates me no end that we can't find someone else.

I definitely can tell. Mostly, it's clear he's been out. Luckily, we're moving next year so won't use her again. It's a max of 4 days a month and we're looking into different options currently.

Do you have any pets? My cat has pulled off a pair of tights that were hanging on the clothes airer before and dragged them upstairs to under the bed! He mostly just does this with his toys but sometimes will do it with clothes. A hoody would be too heavy for a cat but could be what happened if you have a dog?

You might think someone of your daughter’s age wouldn’t want your hoodie, but my dd is 11 and has nabbed one of my hoodies - it’s not even branded. So definitely check with your dd about it.

Yes, I'd check with your daughter. Could she have been playing "dressing up" with a friend (or something like that) and the clothes got damaged or spirited away to the friend's house? I know the cleaner seems the likely culprit but surely she'd know that she'd be the obvious one?

Hoodie was definitely, 100% put on the heated dryer on the day she came to clean. I distinctly remember doing that. When I went to get it from the dryer later on it was missing. Other items of clothing were still there. The hoodie alone had been removed.

I don’t have any pets.

I think DD might be a bit too old for dress up games with her friends but I suppose you never know…

I don’t think there have been any other callers to the house but even if there has been, I cannot picture a passing visitor taking a hoodie, leggings, tote bag and gold chain that was in my bedroom.

I’m definitely not going to accuse her. I have no evidence and the items may well be somewhere in the house but I can’t think where. The house is not big and I’ve looked everywhere. I don’t mind about the tote and chain but the hoodie was personalised and cost a lot. The compression leggings have to be re-ordered from a specific place and take 2-3 weeks to arrive😤

It is incredibly awkward. And I went down the “oh - we’ve changed our arrangements and don’t need a cleaner any more” line rather than anything else. Because what can you say? But the “hoodie and nothing else” type scenario rings horribly true. In our case, it was a collection of random objects whereby each on its own would be far too trivial to make a fuss over (or, to be cynical, to call the police about). But over time it was a lot - and now it’s so easy to resell stuff on Vinted and the like, you can see how someone can do that and make a few extra quid every week….

Why can't you message her and say you feel like you're going mad as you know the clothes were there (don't mention the jewellery) and you need to wear them and can't find them? If you phrase it well she won't think you suspect her of anything.

Why would she steal a personalised hoodie? And a cheap tote bag. It’s not really worth losing her job over.

If you said things like expensive sunglasses, watches, designer clothes. Then yes that is quite clear cut.

You can’t really accuse without proof either and you’d feel awful if it wasn’t true. You have to go down the route an other poster said - and get rid of her if you think she’s stealing.

That’s what we did when expensive things went missing. Couldn’t prove it so said we didn’t need her anymore. We now use an agency where they are vetted. (Though still no guarantee I guess.

We had a light fingered cleaner. She was recommended by a friend, which made it worse.
It started with moisturisers etc being almost fully emptied. I thought I was going mad.
Eventually it became blatant.

She cleaned whilst we both worked out of the home, and we didn’t have cameras.

We changed the locks, and then told her we would not need a cleaner for a while due to building works. Asked her to post her keys through the letterbox.

When we came home, the car had been keyed.
Not a great experience.

Tell me this is just a distasteful joke

In a carrier bag or a case somewhere. Maybe they were dry and she thought they were going to get ruined by staying on the heat.

🤗good luck with the move & finding a good dog Walker ❤️ (if you need one)