Y'all. Our housesitter lost her mind. *UPDATE*
Mar 18, 2019 14:03:17 GMT
**GypsyGirl**, lucyg, and 10 more like this
Post by Merge on Mar 18, 2019 14:03:17 GMT
3/20 update: This morning DH texted me and said he'd opened the trunk of his car to find two plastic tubs of women's clothes. Obviously they'd been using the car to move stuff around. He put the tubs of clothes on the porch with the other tub of housesitter's things that we found. He also found a cigarette butt in the car ashtray, gross.
BUT then he came home this afternoon to find two of older DD's t-shirts, washed and folded, on the doorstep. Tucked in between them was a plastic baggie with my two missing rings inside, and a note that said 1000 apologies, Sara (the housesitter's name). But she didn't take the boxes of her things with her. They're still sitting on our porch.
I don't even know what to think. At least my rings are back. I called the constable to let them know they'd been returned.
*****
Because I know the peas love a good WTF story, here's a doozy to start your Monday off right. Get a cup of coffee and make yourself comfortable, because this is going to be long.
We've been using a particular young woman as a pet/house sitter when we travel for three years. She's probably worked for us six or eight times. We pay well above the going rate for what we're asking her to do, and have even paid her in advance when she is going through a tough financial time. We've never had any complaints about her work. She stays at our house while we're gone and takes care of our two dogs and two cats. She's always left the house as clean as she found it, pets have seemed happy, there's been no evidence of tampering with our personal items.
Well, we just spent a week away over spring break. She was not particularly communicative at first this time, and I got an inkling that something was unusual on Wednesday when she sent me a text with her door code to my own house and the information that the pill box was on the toaster. Obviously this text was meant for someone who was helping her out by going in and giving the dogs their meds. She had never mentioned, and I had certainly never given permission, for her to allow strangers access to our home. I sent back ?? hoping for an explanation, and got a long-winded story (which I now know to be a lie) about some cookies she left for someone.
We were ten hours away by car, so I asked a friend to drive by the house, and she reported that the sitter's car was in the driveway and nothing seemed unusual when she peeked in the window. Sitter also became a little more communicative at that point and sent pictures of the animals, so I decided to wait and see.
Well. We arrived back Saturday night to find that the house was a wreck. The kitchen counters and stove were covered in food and sticky liquids. Trash bins overflowing. She had taken several pounds of meat out of the freezer at some point and left them to defrost in the refrigerator (we've always told her to eat anything she likes, but really? seven pounds of chicken, beef and pork for one person?) and the meat juice had leaked out all over the inside of the fridge. She had also polished off two bottles of bourbon and a bottle of tequila.
But it gets worse! The dogs had obviously been left alone for a very long period of time, as they had messed on the rug - something they never do - and no effort had been made to clean this up. They had also torn up some papers and other small items - again, something they never do unless they are left alone for very long periods (over 10 hours at least). They were frantic and anxious when we got home.
And there's more! Realizing that something had gone very wrong, we began to check our personal possessions. Both daughters reported that clothes were missing from their closets, and that the clothes had been obviously moved around/possibly tried on. The girls' bathroom was flooded and all their bath gel had been squirted out into the tub. The toilet had been used and not flushed.
And worst of all, I opened my jewelry box to find two rings missing. One was the little diamond engagement ring DH gave me when we were in grad school, and the other was a flashier costume piece I keep for sentimental reasons as it belonged to my grandmother. Why would I leave my jewelry unlocked? Well, I used to lock it up when she first started working for us, but she's been so reliable that I got careless. Lesson definitely learned.
And then DH got in his car this morning to go to work, to find that the seat was much closer to the steering wheel than he sets it, the radio was tuned to a station he does not listen to, and what had been a full tank of gas was now sitting below the quarter tank mark. She/they had obviously been driving his car all week - something we have never discussed or given permission for her to do.
I was livid. I texted her Saturday night and told her that I was very disappointed to find the house and dogs in such a state, and that we had obviously not received the service we paid for. I told her I wanted my rings back. She denied at first having taken the rings, but later admitted that they had gotten "accidentally" swept up with some of her stuff as she was leaving. I mentioned that it was weird and creepy to go through people's personal items and wear their things, and she was like, ha ha, I guess I can see why you'd see it that way, sorry, lol. She also doesn't see what the "big deal is" about the meat and the nasty, gross house. She says she "ran out of time" to clean everything up before we got home. Girl, if you're staying in someone else's house, it should never get to that state in the first place. Just disgusting. I spent Saturday evening and most of yesterday cleaning the filth she left behind.
She has a lot of excuses and sob stories, and I finally blocked her from being able to text or FB message me because I'm tired of hearing it. I told her that I expect the rings in our mailbox by the time I get home today, or I'll be filing a police report to get them back. Neither is very valuable, but they have a great deal of sentimental value to me.
I don't know what went wrong in this woman's life that she suddenly felt like it was OK to do all this, but here's my PSA: you never really know someone. And even though my dogs don't care for boarding, we'll be boarding them when we travel from now on, because I can't trust another person to stay in my house.
BUT then he came home this afternoon to find two of older DD's t-shirts, washed and folded, on the doorstep. Tucked in between them was a plastic baggie with my two missing rings inside, and a note that said 1000 apologies, Sara (the housesitter's name). But she didn't take the boxes of her things with her. They're still sitting on our porch.
I don't even know what to think. At least my rings are back. I called the constable to let them know they'd been returned.
*****
Because I know the peas love a good WTF story, here's a doozy to start your Monday off right. Get a cup of coffee and make yourself comfortable, because this is going to be long.
We've been using a particular young woman as a pet/house sitter when we travel for three years. She's probably worked for us six or eight times. We pay well above the going rate for what we're asking her to do, and have even paid her in advance when she is going through a tough financial time. We've never had any complaints about her work. She stays at our house while we're gone and takes care of our two dogs and two cats. She's always left the house as clean as she found it, pets have seemed happy, there's been no evidence of tampering with our personal items.
Well, we just spent a week away over spring break. She was not particularly communicative at first this time, and I got an inkling that something was unusual on Wednesday when she sent me a text with her door code to my own house and the information that the pill box was on the toaster. Obviously this text was meant for someone who was helping her out by going in and giving the dogs their meds. She had never mentioned, and I had certainly never given permission, for her to allow strangers access to our home. I sent back ?? hoping for an explanation, and got a long-winded story (which I now know to be a lie) about some cookies she left for someone.
We were ten hours away by car, so I asked a friend to drive by the house, and she reported that the sitter's car was in the driveway and nothing seemed unusual when she peeked in the window. Sitter also became a little more communicative at that point and sent pictures of the animals, so I decided to wait and see.
Well. We arrived back Saturday night to find that the house was a wreck. The kitchen counters and stove were covered in food and sticky liquids. Trash bins overflowing. She had taken several pounds of meat out of the freezer at some point and left them to defrost in the refrigerator (we've always told her to eat anything she likes, but really? seven pounds of chicken, beef and pork for one person?) and the meat juice had leaked out all over the inside of the fridge. She had also polished off two bottles of bourbon and a bottle of tequila.
But it gets worse! The dogs had obviously been left alone for a very long period of time, as they had messed on the rug - something they never do - and no effort had been made to clean this up. They had also torn up some papers and other small items - again, something they never do unless they are left alone for very long periods (over 10 hours at least). They were frantic and anxious when we got home.
And there's more! Realizing that something had gone very wrong, we began to check our personal possessions. Both daughters reported that clothes were missing from their closets, and that the clothes had been obviously moved around/possibly tried on. The girls' bathroom was flooded and all their bath gel had been squirted out into the tub. The toilet had been used and not flushed.
And worst of all, I opened my jewelry box to find two rings missing. One was the little diamond engagement ring DH gave me when we were in grad school, and the other was a flashier costume piece I keep for sentimental reasons as it belonged to my grandmother. Why would I leave my jewelry unlocked? Well, I used to lock it up when she first started working for us, but she's been so reliable that I got careless. Lesson definitely learned.
And then DH got in his car this morning to go to work, to find that the seat was much closer to the steering wheel than he sets it, the radio was tuned to a station he does not listen to, and what had been a full tank of gas was now sitting below the quarter tank mark. She/they had obviously been driving his car all week - something we have never discussed or given permission for her to do.
I was livid. I texted her Saturday night and told her that I was very disappointed to find the house and dogs in such a state, and that we had obviously not received the service we paid for. I told her I wanted my rings back. She denied at first having taken the rings, but later admitted that they had gotten "accidentally" swept up with some of her stuff as she was leaving. I mentioned that it was weird and creepy to go through people's personal items and wear their things, and she was like, ha ha, I guess I can see why you'd see it that way, sorry, lol. She also doesn't see what the "big deal is" about the meat and the nasty, gross house. She says she "ran out of time" to clean everything up before we got home. Girl, if you're staying in someone else's house, it should never get to that state in the first place. Just disgusting. I spent Saturday evening and most of yesterday cleaning the filth she left behind.
She has a lot of excuses and sob stories, and I finally blocked her from being able to text or FB message me because I'm tired of hearing it. I told her that I expect the rings in our mailbox by the time I get home today, or I'll be filing a police report to get them back. Neither is very valuable, but they have a great deal of sentimental value to me.
I don't know what went wrong in this woman's life that she suddenly felt like it was OK to do all this, but here's my PSA: you never really know someone. And even though my dogs don't care for boarding, we'll be boarding them when we travel from now on, because I can't trust another person to stay in my house.