To think this really is the lowest of the low

[LoopyLou1981]

Just found out that someone has stolen one of the portable DVD players from the children’s ward at our local hospital.
What sort of a scumbag do you have to be to do that?! 😡

Re: the care homes - sometimes the clothes aren't stolen, but redistributed by "kindly" staff. My aunt made sure my granny had a lot of nice cotton nightdresses, and they kept disappearing. My aunt went on the warpath and she was told that, "Oh, Beryl/Eunice/Doris have run out and we know your mum has lots so we just shared them out." It did not happen again!

That is shit. When a relative was in a coma in ICU we got an IPod for her to listen too (as suggested by Drs), however we warned not to leave it on her person as things go missing... people literally stealing from people on life support 🙈😡🤬

Someone has nicked my sons oxygen cylinder and backpack out of the car recently !

My Mum used to work on reception of a large local hospital. Loads of things were getting stolen all the time. T.Vs, videos(she retired in the 90s), visitors cars, medical equiptment. Everything basically. I dont think its a new or unusual problem.

I was in hospital as a small child, and my mum had left me a load of 10ps to use the payphone to call her whenever I wanted to as she couldn’t always stay with me. Someone stole all my money and I was heartbroken. There really are some scummy people out there who just do not care about anyone but themselves.

makes sense of the sixfoot high dvd player in children's a and e.

Our local ambulance station has been broken into three times in as many weeks taking defibrillators and all sorts each time!

My mil recently visited us but preferred to stay in a nearby hotel. When we picked her up everyday she would insist on handing me the tea/coffee/sugar sachets, plus the mini shower or shampoo bottles. Every evening I put them back !

When my son was having chemo when going through one of his bone marrow transplants, he used to suffer horrendous sores in his mouth and throat. They advised getting some ice creams and ice lollies to help soothe him.

There was a parents kitchen with a fridge and a freezer for our use as we used to spend months there. We stocked up on iced goodies, put our name on and date but half an hour later they had all gone!

The nurse apologised and said a certain group came in everyday just after the 5 bottles of milk had been delivered for the hot drinks for the day and filled carrier bags. This was a daily occurrence and that it would be the same people as they took everybodies food too.

They had been approached but they screamed racism and said they had bought the groceries on the way and quickly left.

These same families were having their seriously ill children treated on a bone marrow unit by some amazing staff and they stole from parents in the same situation. Absolute scumbags!

Always use the lockbox for valuables Makes me soon nervous anyone can walk into the ER. That's why the nurses get funny about visiting hrs.

This thread is really eye opening, I can’t believe how many awful people there are. Recently I was in hospital visiting DS and felt guilty that I let my two year old DD have a satsuma from the fruit bowl in the day room that was meant to be for just mums!

There are so many awful stories.
If anyone needs a tiny bit of cheerful information to counteract all the gloom...the hospital’s Facebook post resulted in so many donations that, not only do they now have several DVD players, they have had donations of toys and arts and crafts materials too.
It’s horrible that this has been needed but it is nice to know there a good people out there too x

Lovely update, LoopyLou. There are definitely lots of generous people out there too :-)

I was working in a school when digital projectors were a fairly new thing, and we got together the money to buy 8 projectors for classrooms. They were labelled with that raised-dot ink that can't be removed, and screwed into brackets on the ceiling. About a week later, they all disappeared (from locked classrooms) during parents evening.

Here's the good bit: A few days after the theft the Head got a call from local police station to say they thought we might get some of the equipment back and they had had their eye on someone for the crime. The school was in quite a wealthy suburb which bordered a very deprived area, and the thief had been selling the projectors out the back of a dodgy pub. Perhaps he assumed that no-one would fuss about stuff being stolen from the school in this rich area (the school name had been filed off the plastic cases but he was apparently not hiding where they'd come from). Thing is, half our kids came from that rough area and one of the blokes in the pub took great exception to stuff being nicked from the school where lots of the neighbourhood kids go (all the kids knew they'd been stolen). This bloke apparently told the thief exactly what he thought of him, punched him, collected up the projectors that hadn't yet been sold and left them with a note outside a local supermarket, saying where they belonged (it's not a community where many people would think of going to the police and certainly not reporting anyone). When the shop's CCTV showed the police who'd returned the projectors, the whole story came out!

It still cost the school a lot to replace the equipment, plus buy hugely heavy metal alarmed collars for every projector (and stronger ceiling brackets to bear the weight), but it was really comforting to know that someone in the local community had stood up for us .

By the way, I've seen plenty of schools where the projectors are surrounded by metal cages which are bolted to the ceiling...that's not an environment any child should have to be in!

Re PP mentioning loo rolls being taken at parents evening...yep. Also all the plasters etc out of first aid kits, staff personal belongings, and once the repro room door was jimmied open and the photocopiers emptied of paper!! Really, who would come in and steal a sheaf of loose, cheap A4 out of a school photocopier?!!

A nurse once stole my Ketamine after I was discharged from hospital.

He only got caught because he tried to sell it as a party drug.

Why does it have to be someone on drugs you bellend!! Worked on a paediatric unit until recently and for some families the inpatient ward and its "comforts" are far more than they have at home. Families living in poverty.... its hardly surprising things get taken off wards. We had a sign in/out policy to reduce theft.

The same sort of scumbag who steals cash from a charity that provides childcare, holiday and after school clubs. That was one of the kids who use it.

Living in poverty is not an excuse to steal from sick kids, bloody hell!!

My DD was on hospital wards for two years.
Stuff got stolen quite often.
One of the most depressing things was that my food kept getting stolen out of the fridge. It was costing me a fortune to keep us both fed and my stuff was being nicked two or three times a week.
I ended up being given space in a fridge in a locked room but it still got nicked which meant it was a member of staff who was doing it.
On a children's oncology ward.

But I mostly experienced kindness and compassion from other parents and visitors and staff over those years.

Poverty is not an excuse for stealing from hospitals.
Its not bloody true either.
Being poor doesn't make you amoral.
Plenty of people who nick things do it because they want to, not because they need to.
Lots of poor people would rather drink bleach than steal

Theft has very little to do with poverty, and it’s wrong to suggest only poor people steal. Theft is about greed, lack of morals and taking advantage of people and situations. Well off people as well as poor people steal ~ but the majority of people do not steal.

Ok good stories, we need good stories. I was having treatment last year that made me nauseous and unable to eat. The lady opposite me in the ward noticed and had her visitors bring me nice food not hospital food, later that night when I got hungry. As I had no visitors that night.

We're still friends.

A local school for the disabled had all the tyres nicked from their three specially converted and signwritten minibuses. Somebody went to a lot of trouble to jack them all up and carry away twelve enormous tyres.

Not in quite the same league but the National Trust property near us has stopped using the lovey crockery in it’s tearooms and resorted to paper cups because people kept stealing the cups and jugs and teapots. Clearly the scummy people have broadened their horizons.

I just realised i had my phone stolen during giving birth in 2011. Weirdly enough in a small hospital in a nice area, never seen a junkie here ever, so I assume an opportunist

Yes, really common unfortunately. Both my parents had watches, wedding bands, engagement rings, necklaces, earrings and broaches stollen within hours of going into hospital. Both had money and valuables taken from the home by carers.

Work is just as bad. Ive known staff and suppliers take toilet rolls, condiments, air freshener, tissues, soap, cuttlery, dishes, food, drink, stationery, bin bags, framed pictures, mirrors, plants, laminators, book binders, books, packaging and even laptops and screens.

It’s pure entitlement plus opportunity.