Solitary chicken - need advice

[Janepie33]

DS has lost his week old Fossil wallet, given to him by his sister for his birthday. He put some cash in it and drove to a job he is doing, collecting a couple of friends and his girlfriend on the way. Between our house and the place he is staying the wallet has gone missing.

 

The 2 venues and his car have been searched thoroughly but a variety of people, but to no avail.

 

This has happened to DS before. He was at uni and had a substantial amount of cash on him as he had just sold some fishing gear. This was also a new wallet, bought on holiday by OH. The drunk landlord got the blame for the missing wallet as he often let himself into the property unannounced and DS was sure the wallet was there before the landlord arrived and gone when he left. Nothing was ever proved and money and wallet were gone forever.

 

Sadly, OH has just pointed out that the friend who is working on the job with him at the moment was there on both occasions. Seems like too much of a coincidence to me.

 

I don't want to accuse friend for all the obvious reasons and because DS needs him to complete the job they are doing. The cards have been cancelled and the money is just money, but DD would be so upset if she knew her hard earned gift had gone (am planning to replace wallet and not tell DD!).

 

Have no idea what to do!

 

Any ideas??

[soapdragon]

Sadly, it would seem there is nothing you can actually do if you don't have absolute concrete proof of guilt.

 

What may be an idea is for your son to 'discuss' the losses with said friend and lay it on a bit thick about how upset he is, how devastated his sister will be, and that he hopes it may yet turn up etc and hope that the friend's concience is pricked and he 'finds' the wallet.

 

A very unpleasant situation tho and I do feel for you. Hope its resolved....if not then clearly your son needs to see a great deal less of this 'friend' given current suspicions.

 

Of course, it may just be co incidence and the friend may be perfectly innocent

[Egluntyne]

I'd casually mention it to the 'suspect' and hint that the police have been informed. You never know, it might mysteriously reappear.

 

Rotten for you to not be able to trust a friend.

[Olly]

On the other hand, young men are often careless about these things or are more likely to be in situations where wallets get stolen - I'd be reluctant to start suspecting a friend just because he was there on both occasions, without some other evidence.

[Janepie33]

I think it's probably likely DS dropped the wallet in the street (in which case we are relying on some kind soul handing it in to the police station).

I agree that it is horrible to accuse somebody without any evidence, apart from the fact that friend was there on both occasions a wallet went missing and he is always short of cash and rather likes a puff of the wacky backy quite frequently.

 

Sadly, we are all resigned to the fact that it has gone. Wherever that might be.

 

PS

I have only met the friend on a few occasions and my first impressions was that he was a nice guy.

[soapdragon]

TBH teens are not always known for their attention to detail so maybe it did get dropped....have you contacted the local Police station to see if its been handed in?

 

I know that this may sound a bit mean but at the very least its a good lesson for you son to be a bit more on the ball about such things; Perhaps you could buy him a 'man bag' for Christmas

 

Hope you are able to replace the wallet itself.

[Bramble]

This is a horrible thing to have happen but, as others have said, hopefully it will be (an admittedly costly) lesson for your son to learn. Whether he has dropped the wallet somewhere or it's been pinched.if it was in his back pocket (as they usually are!) either could have happened very easily! I'd say it's most likely it fell out of his pocket getting in or out of the car and ended up in the gutter somewhere?

 

I'd have thought it would be a bit strange for the same friend to have pinched a wallet twice from the same person? The thing is, you are probably never going to know what happened so I think you need to just treat it as a life lesson and put it behind you?

[kinsk]

You'll probably never know what happened on either occasion. Have any other friends had wallets go missing?

 

The only thing you can do is lay it on your son that he needs to be more careful with his belongings and maybe a bit less trusting of people. If no one can get their hands on your purse/wallet then they can't take it.

[Janepie33]

Thanks for your comments everyone. Sadly DS is not a careless teen, but a 24 year old who is usually quite organised and responsible. BUT he was exceedingly tired that morning and obviously not very careful.

 

Yes, I have put in an e mail report to the local police station. Ever hopeful that it will be handed in.

Will let you know.

[Janepie33]

Ordered a new wallet using John Lewis click and collect and when I got home, they had given me the WRONG wallet!

The box had 2 product numbers on it and sadly we didn't get the wallet we needed. Will have to try again.