The maid drama in this household is never-ending. Hubby says it's expected, as having a maid is borderline enslavement, and thus goes against human nature! I guess there is some truth in that, so that makes me a slaver?! Yikes!
Well anyway, moral philosophies aside.. here's what went down...
Sidekick wanted to go home before completing her 2yr contract. With another 3 months to go on her contract, we agreed, only if she wanted to stay another year. Otherwise she could just go home upon completion of her contract. Well, she said she wanted to continue, so was due to go home on 3rd June.
We were about to leave for our diving trip to the Maldives on 25th May, when Hubby realized USD900 was missing from the money we converted for the trip. He had passed me the money which I left in my bag in my bedroom. Up until then, I still naively could not believe she would steal such a large amount of money, as I trusted her. Hubby was sure she was the only possibility, even calling the money changer to make sure there was no short change that day.
I confronted her, showed her the remaining US currency and asked her if she took any of that money. She denied, and said all she had was the RM2000 I gave her for her trip back. She showed me the ringgit for good measure.
So we asked her to open her bags, which she had already packed and locked. I never like going through people's things, it feels wrong. But what choice had we? So, I went through her things while Hubby brought her and the kids to Headquarters, where they were to stay for the week. I looked through her clothes, still half believing that there was another explanation for the missing money. I even checked pants pockets but came up with nothing. I did however, find quite a few items of clothing belonging to the kids which she stole. I realized I hadn't seen these clothes for quite a while, so she must've kept them hidden!! Anyway, I searched all over the house for the money, thinking she might have hidden it somewhere, planning to retrieve it before going home. I even looked into the toilet cisterns!
The consequent events were pieced together from phone calls, messages and explanations received much later, as we then left for our holiday. We thought there was no way of retrieving the money anymore and considered it gone.She could've already passed it to someone? Or have it in her bra?? Obviously she planned to leave and not return... or to return and steal more money??? So many questions...
Well, Hubby told SIL about the missing money and she was determined to investigate. She purposely went over to stay at Headquarters and Sidekick was surprised to see her. It seems that Sidekick asked Popo to send her home so she could get her money; the RM2000 I gave her. She already had it with her, but Popo didn't know, and moreover Popo and Kung Kung are softies and have always been very good to her.
So anyway, she went home and got a small packet out from her clothes in her luggage. The very same one I dug through. (Apparently I won't make a very good detective!)
After that, SIL noticed her clinging onto her handbag wherever they went, at church, at restaurants... She also overheard Sidekick on the phone in the car gloating about her money!! She thought SIL would not understand Indonesian, but she caught the numbers like '900', '2000', and 10 million'!! SIL was convinced that she was the culprit. So when they got home, SIL quickly chased all the kids upstairs to take their bath, and Sidekick had to rush after them, leaving her handbag behind, in the living room.
Super sleuth SIL quickly rummaged through her handbag and when she found nothing, she felt along the lining of the bag and found another small compartment! Bingo! She found a small rolled up package, wrapped in white paper. When she opened it, she found the USD900 and Singapore dollars as well! We hadn't even noticed the missing Singapore dollars, and that proved that she had been digging around our room (we kept it hidden) and stealing since a long time back.
SIL then quickly kept the money and messaged Hubby. We were amazed at SIL's super investigative skills! The money we had given up on had been retrieved, with bonus Singapore dollars to boot!
Now we were worried about Sidekick's next move after finding out 'her' money disappeared. Our only concern was for the kids' safety. So Hubby called her and told her that we had already retrieved the money and added that though he wanted to call the police, I had stopped him (just to scare her). He told her that she was to wait for us to get back, then we would pay her the remaining salary and she could go home and never come back.
That night, SIL slept with the kids and Kung Kung checked on them hourly!
The next day, SIL had to go to work, but still called home every 2 hours to make sure everything was alright! That afternoon, Kung Kung brought the kids and Sidekick out for lunch. After lunch, Sidekick told Kung Kung that she wanted to buy some shampoo, and insisted that they go to Everrise to get it. So they went to Everrise and she went off to get her shampoo and never came back. Kung Kung and the kids waited for almost 2 hours before giving up. They went back to our house and saw that her luggage was still there.
That night, Sis No.3, SIL and Kung Kung all went to our house and found that her luggage was gone. Apparently she came back for her bags but luckily did not take anything else. So we had the locks to the house changed and I guess it was better that way. Our main worry was that she would run away with the kids!
All this happened while we were on holiday! What drama! I wonder what else she has stolen all the time she has been here. Whatever it is, the important thing is that everyone is safe and well, and we are so blessed that we have family to help us with the kids when we are away.
Well, right now I have had enough of maids. I am going to try going without one... let's see how long I last. One of the first things I did after we came back from the holiday was to get a cordless vacuum cleaner and a clothes steamer. ( I HATE ironing)
Wish me luck!
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