What would you do if you knew someone stole something from you?

Question

I ordered a large wall sticker off Ebay and planned to use it to decorate my 6 year old son's room. I had been waiting and waiting for it to arrive in the mail and was about to contact the person I bought it from, when today my son's 7 year-old friend from the neighborhood was over playing and he saw me decorating my son's room with similar smaller stickers. He said, "Oh, that's funny, I saw a BIG sticker like that over there next door by those tiles." So, I went and looked where he had indicated and sure enough, the sticker was on the ground, all stuck full of dirt, with the envelope addressed to me ripped open and right there on the ground by the sticker. Last week I saw this boy in that same backyard, at which time he climbed up to the second floor deck and started throwing tiles from the deck onto the concrete below. I know he hangs out back there, and of course, I have no proof that he was the one who took the package from my mailbox, brought it back there, and opened it, but

Answer 1

Well if your name is on the envelope and it is on someone elses property - you must go and speak to the adults there and tell them you are concerned as "other mail has gone astray"....................

Answer 2

first find proof that the person stole it then confront them

Answer 3

I would talk to his mom, not accusingly, but out of concern, that approach might be received better by her. Sorry about your sticker.

Answer 4

Try to find a way to get proof that he stole it.  Pictures, video, whatever.  Then go speak with his mother or parental unit.  If they won't cooperate, take them to court.

Answer 5

I would confront him on your turf.  Ask him point blank, "have you ever taken anything from our mail box?" Or "were you the one that took the sticker from our mail box?" Kids are pretty transparent, if he's lying you should be able to tell.  If you're comfortable with his response then let it be.  Otherwise I would tell his mom what you know and see if she can get any information out of him.  To me it's kind of dumb for him to bring it up if he actually took the sticker, but maybe he's a dumb kid.  It's important that he is either vindicated, for your comfort sake, or that he is held accountable.  Good luck

Answer 6

I would talk to his parents. Tell them that you didnt see him do it but for them to have a talk with him.