THE CLOSET THIEF

A friend of 10 years quietly emptied drawers in someone else's bedroom for months, and the first clue was a pair of Alo sweatpants.

For "around a year and a half," Lucy had been cat sitting for the poster and the poster's husband. She was paid for it, and she and her partner were also allowed to stay in the apartment. So when the poster left for vacation and came back, there was no reason to expect trouble. In Lucy's latest two-week stay, the poster had even set out three bags of clothes to keep after discussing it beforehand. The bags contained the same kinds of clothing Lucy later returned, and Lucy already had plenty she was welcome to take.

Then, about two weeks after the vacation, Lucy casually mentioned while they were hanging out that she had borrowed the poster's Alo sweatpants and needed to return them. The poster had no idea Lucy had taken them. They were a gift and had only been worn once.

A few days later, the poster asked for those sweatpants and a pair of Lululemon leggings back. Two weeks after that, when the clothes finally came back, Lucy didn't just hand over a couple of items. She brought out a huge bag. Far more than the poster knew she had. The bag seemed to contain pieces from multiple drawers and cabinets in the bedroom and closet, not things that had been lent out.

That was the complication: the poster had also left those three donate bags, and now it was hard to tell what was mixed together and what had been taken.

Lucy apologized and told the poster to let her know if anything else was missing. Over the next few weeks, the poster kept finding more. Pants that had gone missing around the first time Lucy cat sat turned up in Lucy's possession too. When the poster asked about them, Lucy said that next time the poster was over, they could look through her closet to see if anything had been missed.

By then, the search had dragged on for around 6 weeks.

So the poster sent a direct message. It opened plainly: "i need to be honest about how serious this feels to me." Then came the part that landed hardest: "it doesn't sit right that i would have to come search through your closet to figure out what of mine you took. over the past year and a half, you went through multiple drawers and cabinets in my home and took so many items without ever asking or telling me. some of these were things i had never worn/washed. some were gifts. some were sentimental or vintage and irreplaceable. i've also spent time thinking i lost certain items at yoga or in my building's laundry, never once imagining that my friend, someone i trusted in my home, had taken them from me."

The message ended with a request: "i need the rest of my belongings returned. if you're unsure if something is mine, send me a picture and I can let you know."

Lucy apologized again. More clothing came back after that. The total returned so far: around 25 pieces of clothing. The poster is still wondering whether sending that text went too far.