Cleaner stole clothes?

[TractorAndHeadphones]

Got a new jacket that I left hanging on a chair (as far as I recall). New cleaner came, cleaned and tidied. Now I can’t find my jacket.

I’m reluctant to jump to conclusions but this is an item of clothing so not easily mislaid (like a piece of jewellery). I haven’t worn this jacket out yet. DP and I have both turned the house upside down but can’t find it. It’s a branded sports jacket (think Puma, Nike etc) so not particularly designer/valuable. I’ve considered texting the cleaner to ask if she’s seen it as well but I’d sound really stupid not knowing where stuff is in my own house!

AIBU to wonder whether she had something to do with it? Although it sounds like a strange thing to steak I see no other option. Nobody else has been in my house since.

@TractorAndHeadphones

Update - texted her and she replied in 5 mins… said she doesn’t remember seeing anything of that sort?

It has been a few days since she was around though

This was a few days ago? Have you only just noticed you can’t find it?

I lost a coat earlier this year. Looked everywhere and couldn't find it. I took another coat out of the wardrobe a couple of weeks ago and the liost coat was hanging off the shoulder on the hanger. I must have put it on top of the other coat and it somehow slipped off but caught on the shoulder against the back of the wardrobe. I'd searched that wardrobe previously by flicking through all the hangers and checking the bottom in case it had taken off but couldn't find it. Turns out it was perfectly hidden!

@Amberflames

I’m always texting my cleaner to ask if she’s seen stuff I can’t find. Why wouldn’t you just say I can’t find a jacket, and wondered if you’d hung it up somewhere I’ve not thought of?

Yes me too.

@TractorAndHeadphones

Update - texted her and she replied in 5 mins… said she doesn’t remember seeing anything of that sort?

It has been a few days since she was around though

Where have you been since you bought the coat? That's where it is.

@SirensofTitan

This is such an unnecessary thread when a cheery Hi, Jane , I can't find my xxx jacket, I don't suppose you remember tidying it anyway do you? text might sort it out.

@SirensofTitan

it's an unnecessary thread in a Wool Warehouse full of unnecessary threads.

• should I name my baby Turtle Sandpit? (No)
• my DD is lazy. (parent her)
• I suspect I have 4 broken fingers, should I go to A&E? (yes)
• my friend was mean to me (sighs)

Wonder if your cleaner's an MNer ........ if she is and she's innocent, she won't be your cleaner for much longer.

Given that the whole point of my thread is my reluctance to think that the cleaner stole it - which has led to me spending several hours searching and my reluctance to ask her for fear of sounding accusatory - it’s ironic to be accusing me of jumping to conclusions when it’s the opposite. If people read only the title that’s on them and they deserve my snark given the amount of jumping on OP’s people do on MN.
Fancy people jumping to the conclusion that you thought she'd stolen it given that those are the words used in the title.
Fancy that

It’s tough being a cleaner because it’s such a personal job. It is impossible to be a good cleaner without being somewhat invasive.

As there is doubt there is no need to dwell. I would start looking for a replacement, irrespective of the coat.

Look on the back of every door. If it’s a new house there may be hooks you haven’t noticed and she tidied it away there. Look behind the washing machine and check it’s not at work or anywhere you might have taken it off- cafés, shop changing rooms.

I'm afraid we did have a cleaner who was nicking clothes and also CDs and other household stuff, stuff kept going missing so we put the covert cameras on , this I'd probably not the case here and explore all other avenues, but people are naive if they think it never happens

Where did you wear it last, could you have left it there?
Any children, is it with their coats
At your MUms house ?
I’m the garden, where you left it while getting a bit hot, putting things in the shed?
We lose things all of the time.
Often they are right where we looked, and we find them, in an obvious place, we’ve previously looked.
Cupboard under the stairs? My husband puts things away, and then forgets doing it.
Also has a habit of throwing peoples shoes to the back of the under stairs cupboard

My mother swore. SWORE. That she'd packed her designer top to wear on holiday and ripped the hotel room apart looking for it. Of course said it must have been the cleaners. I told her she obviously didn't pack it. OF COURSE she did. I told her just ring my brother and ask him to check, he was flying in to meet us at a later date. I thought maybe she'd taken it out to pack it but forgot to actually put it in the suitcase.

My brother found it.

In the closet.

Just ask her. What’s the big problem here?

@SickAndTiredAgain
I actually noticed the jacket not on the chair yesterday - but thought I'd mislaid it. Which is why I've spent most of the today searching, and then made this thread.
The last time I wore it was day cleaner came, I took it off and hung it on the chair before her arrival. This was in the dining area that we don't use every day (we eat in front of the TV) so I wouldn't have walked past it or anything
I have only been out once since that day to the shop next door, nipped in and straight back out again.

I got asked by a woman I cleaned for when I was 19 if I had seen her maternity bra with the obvious hint that she thought I had taken it. I would never have stolen. But the idea that a 19 year old would steal a maternity bra

Id just sack her tbh. You'll always have the niggling doubt now and it's just not worth it for a cleaner that isn't even any good as per your previous comment

I have no idea whether she's stolen it but unless it suddenly turns up then it looks fairly likely doesn't it? You know your own house and how minimalist / cluttered it is.

Have you looked in your car? My jackets usually find their way in there

@julieca

I got asked by a woman I cleaned for when I was 19 if I had seen her maternity bra with the obvious hint that she thought I had taken it. I would never have stolen. But the idea that a 19 year old would steal a maternity bra

Hahaha that's hilarious! Also she could have asked nicely couldn't she? I made myself sound flustered as a pp adviced (so sorry im such a muppet I must've mislaid it)

I'm racking my brains to wonder if I havent' searched properly... any more secret hanging places.. because we don't have a lot of proper hanging stuff we put things on chairs (DP's coat in the hallway is in fact on the edge of the bannister's and not an actual coat hanger). However we've covered all that

Any MN'er's willing to help me search

… Monica Gellar? That you?

When I was a child, my mum had a friend cleaning for her to help them both out. She used to bring her son who stole my watch and random bits from the house. He was about 8-10. I was gutted as it had been a birthday present. My parents said I must have lost it and only fussed up they suspected he was stealing years later.

Plot twist:
The jacket was totally hideous and the cleaner binned it. Doing you a favour.

Is anyone else just thinking about Monica on Friends?!😂

I couldn't find a brand new still with tags on cardigan I bought recently. I found it down the back of the sofa, I'd mislaid it, convinced myself where I'd left it. I was wrong but at no point did I assume the cleaner had pinched my new Boden cardi...

@SuperDup3r

Id just sack her tbh. You'll always have the niggling doubt now and it's just not worth it for a cleaner that isn't even any good as per your previous comment

I have no idea whether she's stolen it but unless it suddenly turns up then it looks fairly likely doesn't it? You know your own house and how minimalist / cluttered it is.

Yes, my house isn't that cluttered. We just moved, having gotten rid of a lot of junk. I'm not a very thorough searcher but DP is quite a machine and he's never not been able to find something that's in the house. I have lost/left things behind in other places but this jacket was new and I haven't been out which is why it's

I don't really want to sack the cleaner though straight after asking her this. I'll see if there's anywhere else we could have looked but if not the conclusion is inevitable.

@RunningFromInsanity

In no other profession or workplace would a missing jacket automatically be assumed stolen by an employee. Only cleaners are automatically assumed to be thieves.

Well, naturally! Think about it: who else, outside family, has regular unsupervised access to your home and all you keep in it? At odd times you might have a plumber or electrician in but in that case you're mostly there explaining and observing, aren't you?

OP doesn't mention any DC, it sounds like just her and DH, who is searching diligently, so the missing jacket has either been misplaced or removed. If nobody else has been in the house, it's simple logic.

Suspecting theft doesn't make OP a horrible person; she's clearly been reluctant even to ask her cleaner! If the jacket doesn't turn up (my top tip: lose something else and look for that and the jacket will emerge) I would consider getting a new cleaner in a few months when Christmas is past.

A thought: is your cleaner or someone in her family the right size for the jacket? Is it their style? Have you browsed their public SM to see if you can spot it?

I'm with Sherlock Holmes in this: "When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever is left, however unlikely, must be the truth."