Can we talk?

Dishonesty

         Unfortunately, my elderly father had several hiding places for money. I live with him and I only knew about one of them. However, the housekeeper referred to us by a relative found all of them. She cleaned him out. How she managed to get away with heavy cans of coins when someone always saw her leaving we haven't figured out. The cash she could put in her pockets.

         We suspected a few things here and there but couldn't prove anything. We were tipping her and giving her gifts because she's young and is having a hard time. But apparently she has an unemployed boyfriend who likes drugs, so we can assume she was helping him out. I called the relative so she could give the girl a chance to make it right. At that time I only knew about a very large sum of cash. (Believe me I have lectured him about keeping that kind of cash in the house in an unlocked file cabinet, no matter how well it was hidden inside other things.) She denied it, of course. the police detective said she shouldn't have received a warning, but I was trying to help her go straight. Now we are discovering other things we weren't paying attention to.

         I was at work while she was there. My dad gets bored and goes out to the garage or outside. He didn't stay on the same floor where she was working, so that gave her half an hour or more at a time to go through drawers, cabinets, etc. The coffee cans were behind my sewing machine under a shelf on boxes of books. I didn't know there were there. You couldn't see them standing in the room She went searching big time.

         We can have her arrested, but we can never prove in court how much money it was. There are no receipts, no documents. All fingerprints were covered by my dad's fingerprints once he discovered a problem. We have had several instances of theft because my dad is a nice guy who tries to help people. He's trusting and falls for a hard luck story. He's also old, so they take their chances and rip him off. I feel like there's a sign over his head that says "Rob me".

         Now that I know the extent of her theft and that it must have been gradually over a period of time, rather than a momentary lack of judgment, I want her to learn a lesson. Amnesty is no longer an option. But I don't think she'll receive much punishment, if any other than the police hassle.

         We are going to buy a safe. We will not have a housekeeper. I can't let anyone in the house or on the grounds while my dad is home alone. I don't want to be robbed; I work hard for my money, why should some lazy person take it away from me? But it really makes my blood boil that people are so willing to rob a kindly old man and leave him without the money he has saved. He has worked two jobs most of his life, and is still working at one job in his 80's to stay afloat. No one has the right to take it away from him.