I keep finding excessive amounts of sweet wrappers, empty jars of biscoff spread, empty packets of biscuits etc etc hidden in my teen’s room. These are all brands and items we never buy so I know she is getting this herself.
Lots to unpack here such as why she is doing it, which we are working on understanding, but for the purpose of this thread my question is where she gets the money from to pay for all of this. We can see her Revolut spending and it doesn’t match up with any places that would sell these items (for example she’s bought Sainsbury’s and tescos own brand things and has no purchases from there, we also never shop there for our family so she hasn’t added it on whilst running errands). We never have meaningful amounts of cash lying around.
I am worried that she has been shoplifting. If not, then she has stolen from us, technically speaking.
This is not the first time it’s happened. We’ve found copious amounts of wrappers on several other occasions and we’ve always had the same questions about where she gets if all from, and she has never had a good answer. She promises that she has never shoplifted in her life. I’m not sure I believe her.
As this has now become a pattern, it is clear that she is not listening to us when we explain the consequences of shoplifting or stealing (as she must have helped herself to our money somehow, if it’s not shoplifting) I need to help her stop this behaviour before she ends up in serious trouble.
AIBU to consider taking her to the police and explain the above, in the hopes that they scare her straight or get to the bottom of things? Is this a completely unrealistic scenario? Anything else I can try?