A breach of trust (in our home)...(Update) [View all]

[Docreed2003]

Last edited Thu Apr 20, 2017, 10:09 PM - Edit history (1)

Taking a break from the all encompassing Trump fiasco for a minute to share a situation our family is currently dealing with and hoping for support and advice.

Our family recently moved back to the area where I was raised north of Nashville. With my line of work, I was immediately engulfed in work at the hospital, which left my lovely wife holding the bag to arrange for things around the house that needed to be done, some simple some major, but things that, with my schedule, I knew I wouldn't be able to complete in a timely manner...I confess that my "Honey-do list" often takes a while for me to address.

Anyway, my wife had contracted a guy through an app who seemed reputable and came with good reviews. He came in and replaced a ceiling fan and a couple light fixtures and did a nice job. We were so pleased we called him again when we needed a few little things done in the house. On the second visit, I was at work and my wife was home alone with him. He did some work in our bonus room and my wife even showed him a few other things in the house that she felt he might be able to help with. While he was working in our bonus room, my wife had to take a call and went downstairs, leaving him unattended at his work. She made the comment that he made several trips out to his truck but didn't think anything about it. Later that night, we realized that he had stolen several PlayStation games, PlayStation controllers, and some jewelry from my daughters room. We know it was him because no one else was in the house that day and we have a security system that documents every time a door or window is opened in the house.

When I found out about the theft, my first response was to call him...although I was extremely pissed, I was extremely civil, but he didn't answer his phone. I left a message saying "Look, I know what you did and I'm willing to forget all about this, just call us back". That message went unanswered and we ultimately contacted our local police department.

Now, I don't know about you guys, but it's pretty freaking embarrassing to have two patrol cars with four officers show up at your house in the middle of the night when the kids are in bed and the neighbors start turing on their lights trying to figure out what's going on. It didn't help my anxiety that at that point my wife and I had both had a couple glasses of wine and I thought to myself "These guy's are gonna think we're crazy". They took our full statements seperately and one officer went out to the car and ran his info and came back into the house smiling like the Cheshire Cat and said "Oh we know him". They assured us that the matter would be taken seriously and that was that. For me, naively, I figured that would be the end of it. It wouldn't be pursued and the matter would just die. Thankfully, we have the means to replace everything that was stolen and the kids are none the wiser. My wife on the other hand is a nervous wreck, fearful that this guy we trusted, knows everything about our house and could come back. She's been on pins and needles for weeks.

Well we got news today that we have a summons and a court date to face the guy. Turns out he is involved in some other shady stuff and our case is the tip of his iceberg. I'm severely torn over this. I'm pissed and angry this guy stole from us while we were willing to give him more work and even paid him more than he asked for the work he did because he did such good work. At the same time, I don't feel like I can let this breach of trust slide, even over something so minor.

I think we'll go to court. I've told my wife that if asked my response to the judge will be "If he had asked for the equivalent money he stole from us, I would have gladly given it to him. I'm angry at the breach of trust"

Am I being too much of a bleeding heart here? Should I be angrier than I already am? I guess I just needed to share as this has been hanging over our house for so long that I needed an outlet. Thanks folks!

Update:

Thank you to everyone who encouraged us and gave us such great support during this issue. After some whaling and gnashing of teeth, we finally had our day in court. Turns out the guy had a prior record for some serious stuff and he was in violation of parole, and he's also wanted in a neighboring state on an outstanding warrant. Because of what he did to us, he's now looking at a pretty lengthy jail time, per TN law, because of the parole violation. We "won" our case, but the DA said we'd likely never see restitution. That's fine, I'm just thankful that this guy will no longer be able to take advantage of any other families. I can only stress to everyone here: if you bring someone into your home for any reason, be careful. Even a reputable app service doesn't reveal everything about a person.