Woman Steals Money and Items, AITA for Requesting a Partial Refund?

In a recent Reddit thread, a 14-year-old girl shared her dilemma about asking for a partial refund from a woman who stole from her while house-sitting. The teenager, along with her mom and grandma, hired this woman to assist with cooking and dog-sitting when they traveled, but upon returning from a trip to Mexico, they discovered that $42 had gone missing from a hidden drawer.

The woman admitted to taking the money out of desperation to pay her electricity bill, but the young girl felt the impact of not being able to purchase school supplies and a coveted lipstick that had gone off sale. Adding to the situation, the girl found her PE pants missing, a precious doll gifted by a friend broken, and a Virgin Mary mini statue shattered, allegedly by the woman's sons.

Despite these losses, the girl is contemplating asking for a refund of the stolen money plus 15% to compensate for the missed sales. However, she hesitates due to the woman's financial struggles.

The Reddit community weighed in, with many supporting the girl's right to request reimbursement, emphasizing that theft is unacceptable regardless of the perpetrator's circumstances. Some commenters suggested stronger actions like involving the authorities or discontinuing the woman's services to prevent future incidents.

The thread sparked a discussion on empathy, boundaries, and accountability in such delicate situations.

Original Post

I (14f) live with my mom and grandma. We sometimes hire a woman to help with cooking and to dogsit when we travel.

Last month, we went to Mexico and had her watch the house and our dogs. The thing is that when we came back, I found out she had stolen 42 dollars hidden on clothes drawer, though I do get she did it for a harsh reason, her electricity would be cut if she didn't pay.

She said she simply "saw the money and took it" but there's no way, especially because she had no business in my room and my room is in the most isolated part of the house. That money was reserved for school supplies and a lipstick I wanted to try, but because she stole the money, I can't get the lipstick because it's no longer on sale, and this specific brand only goes on sale once or twice a year, while the school supplies I was going to buy are no longer 40% off.

she also took a pair of my PE pants (which thankfully I had an extra pair, she came to return it 4 days later) which again, were in my room, she said she put them "Accidentally" on her bag. Also, I have a doll, which is very precious to me since it was gifted to me by a friend who moved away to europe, this doll is very high quality and about 30 dollars, the doll was hung to the mirror of the copilot's seat in my mom's car and it has marks as if it was yanked off so the doll is now broken.

She said she was cleaning the car and it simply fell and broke without her touching it. Later another day, my grandma found a v****n mary mini statue she had fully shattered by one of her two sons, we would've just brushed it off hadn't these boys been 12 and 16, yet they weren't even reprimanded for it and broke other stuff, we know it was her son because my grandmother literally saw him.

I'm not asking her to replace the doll, and neither is my grandmother asking them to replace the v****n mary mini statue, I just plan to ask her to give me back my money plus 15% because of the sales I missed because of it, but at the same time, I'm not sure if I should because of her situation.

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