Pet Sitter Snooped Through the House

[TheIncredibles!]

I personally think you are not equipped to have other people enter your home and watch your animals if you have this level of paranoia that you believe someone stole exactly 2 pills and put everything back exactly where they found it. What would be the point of that high-risk, low-reward effort?

It's obvious that you didn't trust this person before she even arrived. She knew you had cameras, which leads me to believe that she probably wasn't doing anything untoward - or maybe she assumed you aren't a creep and don't have cameras in your bathroom.

It is VERY COMMON for people to only steal 1-2 pills at a time instead of taking the entire bottle. You are more likely to get away with taking 1-2 pills at a time vs more and of course people are careful when they steal. @@. You can get upwards of $100/pill depending on what it is.

The OP does not have cameras in her bathroom, she has cameras and she TOLD the babysitter about them. My guess is she absolutely thought the bathroom was not visible from the bedroom camera.

 

[PlainJane]

I lived in an area that had a very high per capita number of drug addicts, heroine addicts to be specific. I knew addicts that would steal their own family member's money and then "help" them look for the "misplaced" money. I knew people who chose drugs over inheritances. Hearing about a person that would do it knowingly on camera just doesn't surprise. The fantastical lies that come out of addicts' mouths and the manipulation carried out are really an art form.

In the end it doesn't matter if she didn't take drugs, she's a creep. But yeah, I think she was looking for drugs and possibly to steal other stuff that she could sell for drugs.

I, also, have dear friends that are former addicts, just for anyone who is wondering.

 

[TheIncredibles!]

Why do people think she was looking for drugs and a drug addict? What are they going to find in most people homes. High blood pressure medicine. Think she was just snooping doesn’t make it right but doesn’t think she was looking for drugs. What can a druggie do with high blood pressure medicine and other common legal drugs People take.?

You would be shocked at the street value of regular “drugs” people have. Gabapentin is a common drug for people with nerve pain. Google it.

 

[Grand Koalafornian]

Can I hire you?!?! lol

Seriously, I wish I had someone who I could trust to treat my cat kindly and also respect the privacy in my home. It sounds like you do a great job and I wish there were more people like you.

That's so sweet! If you live in the Los Angeles area, message me, lol

I love the animals I take care of. I have my own cats and they are my babies! I treat other people's pets how I'd want mine to be treated. Plus, it's like getting paid to have puppy/kitty therapy.

As others have pointed out, there could be several different reasons she snooped, we don't know for sure. If it was one of the few acceptable reasons, she should have told you about it. Curiosity is not an acceptable reason, of course.

I do want to say that I certainly don't think you're "psycho" for being upset about this. A lot of the families I sit for have cameras. If I'm staying overnight, they are supposed to warn me before they look at the cameras or footage, but that's because I might be in my pajamas or just in a towel after a shower or something, so I need the warning to preserve my privacy.

If it's a short cat visit, I could not care less if they look at the footage. They'll catch me petting the cat, or playing with him, or even singing to him. Oh no!

Sorry you're dealign with this! I hope you find a better pet sitter for next time.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

OK, long but somewhat relevant story to share.

We had a court case a while back. The woman asked her (male) neighbor to come over and let her dogs out once a day while she was tied up with a husband in the hospital. The neighbor was only supposed to open the back door, call the dogs out and then let them back in. No reason to actually enter the house and definitely no need to go upstairs.

The neighbor had done this numerous times over the course of several weeks.

One day, the woman decided to take a look at the footage from the nannycam that she had set up when she thought that the cleaning lady was stealing. The camera was upstairs in her bedroom.

She pulled the footage and discovered that her neighbor had been helping himself to her underwear drawer and was... well, I'll let you fill in the blanks.

They could not make a criminal case work because, although she had not intended for him to enter the house, she had given him a key, asked him to open the door, and had not specifically told him not to enter. And believe it or not, "entertaining himself" is not actually a crime, even in her underwear. So, we were there for a civil case in which she was suing for the cost of erecting a privacy fence (because she was creaped out) and the cost of replacing all of her underwear.

Yikes. This reminds me of the Elmo/home inspector story of two months ago - in the child’s room! (Google.)

This customer had cameras and she knew it....and still couldn't help herself.

Yup. Memory and/or judgement is usually way off with addicts.

 

[kymom99]

My mother in law had an agency sending her help during the day when her kids were working. She was missing $40 out of her purse. The family wasn’t 100% sure she had put the money in there but SIL said she did withdraw $40 for her the day before. They called the agency and the supervisor or whatever you call it came over with a gift and $40. And an apology. No proof this person stole from her, but many get into the business just because of the opportunity to steal.
My husband worked at a nursing home. They would catch employees on camera coming out of a patients room chewing a morphine patch. They would pretend to change the patch but actually leave the old one on there. Addicts are desperate and use opportunities to get what they need.

 

[DisneyHardin]

My mother in law had an agency sending her help during the day when her kids were working. She was missing $40 out of her purse. The family wasn’t 100% sure she had put the money in there but SIL said she did withdraw $40 for her the day before.

On the flip side, when my Grandma was living in an assisted living, some money went missing out of Grandma's purse a couple times. When mom discovered it was gone, she immediately assumed one of the workers had done it, but since it wasn't a huge amount of money, she didn't report it to anyone, but she also didn't replace it since Grandma didn't really need any money for anything. A few weeks later, Mom's sketchy brother called that he had been visiting Grandma and thought Mom should know that she didn't have any money in her purse. Mom put 2 and 2 together and figured out my uncle was who had been stealing the money, not the worker. She was so glad she never talked to a supervisor or anything about it and possibly got an innocent person in trouble.

 

[dvcgirl67]

Yup. Memory and/or judgement is usually way off with addicts.

It really is....there is no "thinking" going on there....it's an addiction and so judgement is not in the equation.

The other thing, as someone who owns this type of business, I *really* go over all of this kind of detail with my people. They all need to carry the personal items that they need with them, in their cars. Things like Advil, band-aids, personal hygiene items, drinks, lunch/dinner or snacks...etc. We always ask pet-sitting clients (out of town customers)....to leave everything we may need on the counter in the kitchen....like bowls, food, leashes, brushes, meds for pets, treats, etc. If we need to go looking for something, first my people would text me...I might know where it is if they can't find it. If we still can't find something, there's a group text with my employee, me and the customer, so there's a record of the question we had. I also tell customers to close every door to any room where pets won't be and we don't need to go....and we won't go in there. We will go around the house in any room with doors open looking for accidents/vomit, etc. I will tell you that I have cut my hand/fingers in homes over the years, but I carry what I need in my car.

 

[PollyannaMom]

I will not be confronting her because this is taking too much energy already. Though it goes without saying that I will not be having her pet sit again.

Hopefully she was just a snoop (which I would still report if she was from an agency, because they'd want to know, but I can understand not wanting to confront her if she's an independent).

BUT, just to be on the safe side, I would also go around and check all window locks, etc. (even for the rooms you didn't watch the footage of) - make she she wasn't making it easy for a partner in crime to get in later.

 

[Carol_]

Also, change the locks. Keys are easily copied.

 

[jaiminee krikit]

Nobody keeps female hygiene products in a medicine cabinet.

Weird. I've known of several people who do.

 

[tzolkin]

The OP does not have cameras in her bathroom, she has cameras and she TOLD the babysitter about them. My guess is she absolutely thought the bathroom was not visible from the bedroom camera.

I would also assume that there are no cameras in the bathroom so that would make sense for the sitter to assume the same. However, I believe the OP said the pills were in the dresser in the bedroom not in the bathroom. So in order to steal them, the sitter would have had to look in the rooms where there were cameras and not just the bathroom.

 

[FlightlessDuck]

It looks and sounds bad, but I wouldn't jump to the worst conclusion yet - she might have been looking for a cat brush or some sort of toy (like a laser). I mean, since it's possible, I'd let her explain. Although, no matter the explanation, I might not hire her again.

Maybe she needed some advil?