Grandson's coat stolen/taken by mistake at school

[Onthecarpet2002]

We bought our 7 year old dgs a lovely coat for school, he's only had it a couple of weeks. Not too expensive as it was in the sale.
He's been in tears all evening as he went to his peg & it was gone. I bet the parents don't send it back. You want your children look nice for school & be warm, but it just seems these days you think what is the point. You may as well get stuff from a charity shop for school, even though your dc might be embarrassed about it.
If we buy him another one I'll be soo mad if that goes missing too. I never had these sort of problems 20 odd years ago when my own dc were at school 😡

Oh no! Has it just happened today? I'm sure if it's got his name in the parents will have realised and it'll turn back up on Monday, probably another child not paying attention and just grabbing a coat.

Even when I was at school this sort of thing happened, I'm sure it's a tale as old as time.

Have you spoken to the school?
Have you checked lost property?
A child may have been genuine in taking it in error and the parents return it on Monday.

Did it clearly have his name on it.

If it’s literally happened today then I wouldn’t assume the worst, hopefully it’s just another kid who has taken it by mistake. It happens all the time and I’ve never not have something turn up eventually!

I'm sure it will make it back home. This happens all the time in my DC's school.

Is there a class whatsapp group it could be mentioned on?

there are some good people who might return it. use the group what's app or ask the school secretary if there is a way to reach out (most likely the new owner has a child of a similar size).
in the likelihood it has been stolen, yes in some instances it is best to buy nice clean cheap items that when and if "lost" don't cause much grief.
a friend recently mentioned using luggage tags to track special items, cheap on amazon...

This has happened since I was in school decades ago. It’s unfortunate, it often happens. See if comes back on Monday - ask parent to look through all the pegs (not the teacher, they will not have time).

presume it was named?

Is there a school WhatsApp? People are always posting on ours to look out for missing stuff and it's mostly found and returned.

Was it labelled? How long ago did it go missing?

For what it's worth both my children have coats from the charity shop and my children are not embarrassed- why should they be- they're just coats and don't have a big 'I bought this second hand' label stuck on them.

You dont know rhat it won't be returned, though? Cheer GC up, try and forget it until Monday when you can phone the school.

it's a fairly big jump from 'someone's probably picked up the wrong coat' to 'there's an epidemic of coat stealing at schools, it weren't like this in my day...'

It will turn up on Monday.

Bit of an overreaction! Why think the worst? A child's taken it by mistake. Whose was left? That usually identifies the 'culprit'.

It’s just accidentally been shoved in someone’s bag by a TA or is under a table in the wrong classroom. If it’s labelled, it will come back. Unless they are 15 and it was a designer brand, no one wants someone else’s coat. Ds lost his about 2 weeks ago. We searched everywhere at school. Last Friday it came home with him. Was likely shoved in a box somewhere without someone checking in there for it.

I think you’re overreacting. It may well have been taken in error, see what happens next week.

It’s also worth letting school know. If it’s been taken purposefully then you’re less likely to see it again, but your GS can keep a lookout for it at playtimes etc.

Was it named? The more expensive the item the more ways I name each piece of clothing, screw in name tags, sewn in too and biro on labels!

Why would you assume it won’t be returned on Monday? Kids make mistakes pick up the wrong stuff, move and mislay stuff all the time.

It's really annoying but it's not a new thing, I remember having my own coat stolen at school more than 50 years ago!
Hopefully your GS's coat will have had his name in it so that if it does turn up it will make it's way back to him.
Tell the teacher it's missing, keep an eye on Lost Property.
In my school we find random coats and jumpers left in the playground or in the hall every day. Only about 25% of them are named. Ask him if he took it off while playing outside at break or lunchtime, whether he had it at the end of the lunch break etc.

Coats are forever being picked up by the wrong child at that age. They haven’t deliberately stolen it, 7 year olds just don’t do shit like that with coats. It’s either that he’s left it on the playground and forgot or that another child has picked it up by mistake and their parent didn’t notice.

Did it have his name in it?

Stuff usually comes back. It might take a week or two, but usually it will turn up in time if well labelled. Keep checking list property, even if it's well labelled, and don't give up hope.

Happened to me back in the 70's but it all got sorted out within a few days (we were all wearing those snorkel parkas!).
The only fly in the ointment in this case is that it is usually a case of someone taking the wrong coat whereas it sounds like no coat was left over?

Is he sure he didn’t leave it in the playground? It will probably turn up in lost property.

Kids do steal stuff, and parents hang on to it. It's normal for school .really annoys me how school have no teeth to check and return things. My daughter took in some show and tell stuff - stolen from the teachers desk - teacher 'can't check the bags'.

Was it clearly named.
If so it’ll probably turn up in the next couple of days.
If not, there’s not a lot that can be done.
Hopefully someone will still bring it back.
Kids pick up each other’s clothes all the time. It’s rare that they’ve actually deliberately stolen it.

Dh saw a dc wearing ds's hat last week. He just politely told the dgf who collected the boy it was our ds's... He handed it back adamant ds had given him it. Ds said obviously he hadn't and took it back...

the Year 2 WhatsApp group for my son’s class is constantly full of ‘did anyone pick up x’s coat by mistake’ messages. Every time either a different kid has taken it home by mistake or it has fallen down behind the pegs and is retrieved the next day. Chances are your grandson’s coat will reappear next week.

What age is he.

Keep the receipt, photocpy it.
Watch out for any child wearing said coat.

If a disagreement occurs at school the serial number on the receipt should tally with the inside tag, size etc.

No doubt if said coat is being worn by another child their parents will argue the toss about who it belongs to.

Good luck.