To be suspicious of this

[NCshirtdetective]

I hired a cleaner last month for the first time and as she was working I noticed a pair of my earrings on the kitchen surface partially hidden behind the door (it overlaps when held open).
I have an odds and ends box in the same area but wouldn't have put my earrings in it.
It was odd but I just put them back where they came from. Nothing else was out of place.
Then she came again and I happened to be wearing the earrings and she said she loved them and asked where she could get a pair.
Am I being overly suspicious or would you look for someone else?

Well you don't trust her so ...

Didn't say I don't trust her. I found it odd that my earrings were in a different place and next time she came she asked where to buy them. Seeing whether other people would say that's a coincidence or not.

Sounds a bit odd.

Where did they "come from"? A jewellery box in your bedroom? Or the kitchen table?

I keep all the earrings in my bedroom. I was reorganising every room at the same time but there was still no reason for them to be in a completely different room

If she had picked them up to take them, I sincerely doubt she would put them down on the kitchen counter and then drawn attention to them again by asking about them... Likely a coincidence. Either YABU being suspicious or you've employed the world's worst thief.

Of course you don't trust her. Otherwise you wouldn't be suspicious. Just let her go and find someone else or not.

I couldn't find my wedding ring last week. It was in the downstairs bathroom, I would have sworn to anyone that I hadn't been in there that day but there it was anyway. We don't always remember when we do something or if we have been distracted.

Regardless, it's not fair on your cleaner if you are going to be suspicious of her every time something is in the wrong place.

Are you thinking she tried them on? Maybe just held them up to her ears then put them back in the wrong place?

@Nomoreporridge872 thank you I hadn't considered that.

@nokidshere I disagree that someone should lose their job that easily. You’re being very flippant. Maybe “you don’t trust her so fire her” should actually be “you don’t trust her so consider all the options and give her the benefit of the doubt”

I agree it’s odd that the earrings were in another room. But she could have been admiring them as @Nomoreporridge872 said. Which, while overstepping, isn’t worth her losing her job over if she’s otherwise a good person and a good cleaner.

The old one two three is the best option here. Once was when they were in the kitchen when you left them in the bedroom. Happenstance. Twice was when she remarked upon them. Coincidence. When they disappear, that’s three, enemy action!

If they were just randomly abandoned somewhere in the house, maybe lounge side or bathroom etc, and she had noted your odds and ends tray. She probably put them there to stop them going missing. That's what I would do, and if I liked them and saw the owner wearing them, it would remind me to ask where she got them from.

@SmolCat I wouldn't want to work for someone who didn't trust me me? Would you?

Why would you need to give her the benefit of the doubt? My first thought if something is not where I thought it was is never going to be 'someone else moved it', it would be 'I don't remember leaving that there'

If you’re 100% certain that it can only be her who put your earrings there and that you didn’t absent-mindedly put them there yourself, then I wouldn’t trust her, no. She’s there to clean, not try on your earrings or to decide put them tucked out of the way in the kitchen or whatever reason there is for them not being where you left them.

I think trust is a big thing but give her another chance

@FlasherMcGruff thank you, yes I have a jewellery box and definitely didn't misplace them. So it was just strange. But nothing outright happened so I didn't feel 100% either way.

Are you sure she didn't find them somewhere and popped them on the side so they wouldn't get hoovered up?

[quote nokidshere]@SmolCat I wouldn't want to work for someone who didn't trust me me? Would you?

Why would you need to give her the benefit of the doubt? My first thought if something is not where I thought it was is never going to be 'someone else moved it', it would be 'I don't remember leaving that there'
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If it was the difference between being able to eat and pay bills or not then yes I would.

Now that suspicion exists you will NEVER be happy at the thought of her alone in your home.

I'd terminate and find another cleaner.

Oh god, this is bringing back memories of being a cleaner in peoples homes. Never again. I was 20, without kids and got one woman angrily accusing me of stealing her maternity bra.
Cleaners seem to get this all the time whenever anything is mislaid.

@RoyalFamilyFan it's nothing to do with being a cleaner.

I have actually worked as a cleaner myself in hotels!! (Should have said that.) I don't have a bias against cleaners.

It's simply the facts that happened.

I would just think it was a coincidence. But then I wouldn’t employ someone that I didn’t trust.
Has anything else happened?

One way of stealing something is to hide it somewhere else in the vicinity/same location, see if it's missed, and extract it at a later point.

I'm not saying this what happened, just that it does happen.

If she had picked them up to take them, I sincerely doubt she would put them down on the kitchen counter and then drawn attention to them again by asking about them... Likely a coincidence. Either YABU being suspicious or you've employed the world's worst thief.

I agree.

She wouldn’t have drawn attention to them by putting them where you can see them, talking about them or wearing them around you.

No one would do this on the first day either.