Thefts at home

[dontlikethistoday]

My elderly dad has lots of carers, health professionals in his house every day but over the last few months we’ve noticed that small amounts of cash and at least one valuable item have gone missing. We reported it to the care agency who had to report to the police. The police couldn’t do much without evidence and for a while, it stopped. Unfortunately it’s started happening again! I’ve since locked all the valuables away but hate the thought that a trusted person is stealing from us.

I spoke to the police again today and they say I’m within my rights to install a hidden camera. The care agency say I need to declare this (for GDPR purposes) but the police say that if I believe a crime is being committed, I don’t really need to inform them. Bit of a grey area I guess.

Has anyone had to do anything like this? It makes me really sad to have to do it but I think it’s important to catch whoever it is.

I would add cameras that you can monitor from your phone for example a Blink camera and you can add multiple ones in different rooms. If the police have said you are within your rights then I would disagree with what the carers are saying!

Not the same but we went to view a house and they had put cameras inside downstairs and upstairs they were pointing in the hallway, landing and in the bedrooms, I’m assuming to make sure people viewing their house didn’t steal anything. I wasn’t told about them before the viewing but I didn’t object as they obviously want to protect their property.

It makes me sick that people get away with stealing from the elderly like this so I would go for it and either hope that it catches them or it deters them from doing it again.

We had cameras. Caught a food delivery guy stealing a knife from the garage where the freezer was. He denied it all, said he'd picked it up by accident and dropped it on the way out. Even posted it through the letter box a couple of days later so it would be "found" on the floor. (My FIL was partially sighted and the OT found it when she came to visit)
Unfortunately for the thief he was caught on camera both stealing it and putting it through the letter box. He was sacked and charged though we never got any follow up. The thing we wanted was the charge to appear on a DBS check so he couldn't work with the vulnerable again. Just tell the agency you have cameras to monitor your dad during the day and night for his safety. Ours were fine about it.
We used Google home. My dad has blink but they are not as good so I'm going to take the Google ones to his house and replace them

They don't even need to be hidden cameras. Ours were fully visible. Obviously not in bedrooms or bathroom but most of my fils care happened in the living room so well visible. We also caught one carer going in, finding him not in the sitting room at 8am and just assuming he was in hospital, never checked the other rooms(he was in bed) he then came back 3 hours later as the care agency hadn't been able to track him to a hospital and we weren't available by phone to ask anything for a couple of hours and he walked in, checked every room and still didn't find him sitting in a high backed chair at the end of the long sitting room as he was just about to phone us to say the carer hadn't been....crazy....he was removed from fils care after this. Hopeless

It is almost par for the course unfortunately. Fit cameras asap. PIL were in a retirement flat/ sheltrted housing. The block cleaner stole valuables from all the residents. We didn't discover that her jewellery was gone till the cleaner had left. They took the good stuff but left the costume jewellery.
Elderly people are so vulnerable.
My dad's carer stole money from him over a long period of time. She used to collect his pension for him and pocket most of it.
We discovered much she had form but had got away with it.
She even tried to get him to leave his bungalow to her in his will. My sister called unexpectedly and there she was with paperwork for him to sign.

Mil.
Much later.
Too hot to type properly.

Thanks everyone. We suspect it’s someone from the care agency and so don’t want to inform them of the camera’s presence until we’ve identified who it is. So sad that something like this is even necessary.

Yes, i know people whose carers stole from them (genuinely - not a dementia delusion) and the carers were caught, but I don't know what ultimately happened to them in either case. It's so sad that this happens but it definitely happens a lot. I agree that cameras are probably a good idea.