Friend (let’s call her Jane) of 10+ years has moved back to our home town recently after living 300 odd miles away for a few years. She has had an incredibly rough time- her now exH was abusive (nobody had any idea), she is now a single parent to 4 kids under 5 and has a bad drug addiction.
Before she moved home, a mutual friend (let’s call her Denise) came to visit me as she has family where she has been living and when she visited her family would visit friend as well. She warned me to keep away from Jane when she came home due to the drug addiction as she had form for stealing money off people, things out of people’s houses to sell etc. Denise does has a habit to shit stir and is a very jealous person and has always believed she is closer to Jane then me and any of our other friends.
Anyway- Jane came to visit as soon as she was home (same day in fact). I suggested to her she came round alone so we could chat- I’m an incredibly non judgemental person and as long as someone is honest about what they have done, I can forgive them/see past it. Jane admitted she did steal money off Denise, but paid her back which Denise denied. I decided to believe Jane because she was honest about what she did and what I mentioned previously about Denise.
Anyway- the point of this thread. I have a petty cash box at home that I keep £50 in for emergencies. Jane asked to lend some money and I gave her £10- when I went to check, another £20 was missing. There was 10000000% two £20 notes and a £10 in the box before she came as I had put £200 in there the night before for my DP and when I gave him it the £50 was in there.
Jane says she has taken £10 and my DP must of stolen it. DP didn’t know until the other night where I kept the cash box so people could say it is a coincidence and because he knew where it was located decided to help himself to £20. I showed Jane where I got the cash box out of, but then hid it somewhere else but I remember thinking I could hear floorboards creaking by my bathroom door as I hid it (there’s a storage cupboard under the bath)
I asked my DP and he insisted he didn’t take it and I didn’t argue with him about it- but as I pointed out to Jane, she has form for doing this. Jane has been giving DP threatening phone calls, DP wanted to go to the police and I managed to talk him down- regardless of what she has done, I couldn’t get her children taken into care which could happen
I’ve told Jane to leave me alone and pay me £30 back on Monday when she gets paid from work and to leave it with my mum as I don’t want to see her. She doesn’t understand I can’t believe her because she has stolen in the past
AIBU?