Hold up. I thought you hadn’t come back to the barn for two weeks, then said they should have not considered your vest abandoned if it had been left out for two months. But you came back looking for it after just 6 days? I think that’s reasonable. I don’t think it’s reasonable that you would leave equipment out at a barn for the weeks or months you mention and have someone not consider it abandoned.
Seems to me that the BO or someone who knew you had gotten hurt that day could have put your vest in your trunk for you that night.
Yup. I left my bridle on the tack hook to be cleaned by me on accident when I got a call from work to go out of state that night. Guess what was still on the tack hook when I got back?
If I ever had an employee that behaved like this to a client of any kind I would be MORTIFIED.
I am a landlord and I tell every contractor who comes in that my tenants get treated with respect. I dont care if they are section 8’s who act hood and you are a country boy with an NRA membership and political beliefs that don’t include housing assistance, if I hear of any disrespect to my tenants we are done.
And this barn owner can’t keep some horse crazy 20 something from stealing from the multi horse clients and wearing the spoils brazenly down the barn aisle? Repeatedly?? And other alleged professionals think this is fine??
What kind of ratchet-@$$ dog and pony shows are we running here???
Right? It’s not even about the amount of horses that the OP has. Why on earth would you keep someone like that around?
Then again there are many here who obviously would. Maybe that’s part of the reason boarding barns lose money on boarding. They have employees who take what they want. Hay, shavings, clients stuff. Way to be professional.
So, there’s a saddle collecting dust in the tack room (I board) that hasn’t moved in over a year, I should just take it, right? :rolleyes:”‹”‹”‹”‹”‹”‹
”‹”‹”‹”‹”‹”‹Obviously if they are not using it or left it there, it’s up for grabs.
Even if a pair of gloves were sitting out somewhere for 2 weeks or 2 months, I wouldn’t touch them, why on earth would I?
If I were barn staff, I put them in lost and found or in a common area with a note (if there is no group chat to send a message to). People on this thread really blow my mind.
People are human. Sometimes they forget or leave something. That doesn’t make you entitled to their stuff.
Because it’s hard to find people who will clean stalls for $10/hour. When people get paid professional salaries, you get professional behavior. I don’t condone stealing at any price-point. But being annoying or a smart-ass, but doing the job? I can see the BO thinking “out of the frying pan, into the fire” when I fire this girl and have to go find a different kind of PITA when I advertise my shitty job to the masses again.
Whilst completely agree stealing (or, for that matter, any crime) is and remains a crime no matter what. This is just a simple legal position. However, there is a bit of an ethical question as well, if someone is paid $10 p/h, one can barely expect the professional behaviour your would otherwise expect from an expert…
Ahh, so if you make less than so much an hour theft is ok. Gotcha. Also, it’s super insulting to those people to say they lack they are of a class that can’t help but steal and be unprofessional.
OP…when you were injured who put your horse/tack away? It just seems odd to me that no one would have stuffed in your trunk at the same time as your gear…hence the “it was left out for x days” unreasonable. I’d hedge she snagged it before you drove through the out gate
Mmmmkay. So if you make $10 an hour cleaning stalls, then you have carte blanche to do whatever the hell you please so as not to inconvenience the BO who would need to replace you??!! No. Seriously? Just no.
Professional behavior does NOT have a $$$ value per hour assigned to it. Being annoying or being a smart ass to boarder/clients would get you “out of the frying pan” very quickly at any barn I have been associated with. As would an attitude of “I am only paid $XX so I can do this and that”…
Many years ago, a young 20-something girl worked as barn help (BH) at our therapeutic riding center. Her family owned a hunter/jumper barn nearby and she always showed up in the big fancy farm truck with the farm logos all over it… making sure that volunteers would ooooh and aaaah… (she actually said she did this just to show off)
She was slow as molasses about tasks she felt were beneath her. She did not clean stalls - but turn out and bringing horses back in did not meet with her lofty opinion of her importance.
Slowly, things started disappearing from the big tack room. Donated coolers and fly sheets. Girths. Romas. A fancy bridle that came with a large Warmblood who was donated to the program. Oddly enough, only items that would fit big horses were taken. If a horse or pony was less than 16 HH, their stuff was not touched. Hmmmm, some of us said.
Then things started disappearing from the offices - where no volunteers went - only staff.
So it was obvious that it was a staff member doing this. The BH in question was seen at a show with her horse modeling the “twin” to the exact high-end bridle that had gone missing. Hmmmm, more of us said.
Then one of the instructors mentioned that her boots were missing from under her desk as of that afternoon.
Less than an hour later, myself and the instructor whose boots were missing were in adjoining stalls grooming horses - both these stalls had open windows that looked out over the parking lot. Both of us saw BH go to her truck, open the tonneau cover and root around for something - and she put some things that were in her way on the back bumper as she did so. Including the missing boots. BH was surrounded by annoyed staff as she tried to stuff everything back into the truck and slam the cover shut… but too late. When she said “someone had put stuff in there and she did not know anything about it” , the police were called. By then a sizable crowd had gathered in the parking lot…
Suffice to say she was charged, fired and word spread quickly. She obviously thought she was entitled to help herself to whatever she pleased… and that she was so clever no one would ever catch her! Would that be considered a “Karen” move?
OP, you can’t leave your stuff out. Which you know. Even if your kid is the one who did it. Doesn’t matter. All your stuff has to be put away. That’s your responsibility. The day you got hurt was unusual obviously that’s understandable. But as a general matter you need to put all your stuff away. You admitted immediately that you understand that. I don’t really understand why so many feel the need to rake you over the coals, but the reality is that you should not regularly leave your stuff out.
The barn worker seems very odd that she keeps taking things left out when you asked her not to and that’s not the barn’s policy (I rode with a guy whose express policy was that if something stayed out for 48 hours it was his and he would do what he wanted with it [usually trash it or make the kids earn it back with chores]-- but that’s apparently not the policy where you board. So it’s weird to me that the barn worker insists on taking stuff left out.
I would tell the BO “I’m sorry I left my stuff out but the time with the vest was because I went to the hospital. I was hurt and just not thinking. Other than that, I will do my best to be more careful putting things away. That being said, I don’t want to worry that if I put something down for a brief period, it’ll be picked up and taken. Could you please ask worker not to take things left out unless she’s checked with my first. I’ll label all my items. If she finds something with my name can you please ask her to return it to my locker rather than assuming I didn’t want it anymore. I will do my best to put things away, but I am human and might forget.”
And then I would label EVERYTHING. Prominently. On the OUTSIDE of things, where possible.
If I caught worker with something of mine after that I would say “hey, thanks for picking up my item. I’ll put it away now.”
OMG no. Just no. Even before COVID19, wasting policemen’s time with a “theft” where the owner got both items back would be a huge “NO”, but asking the police to expose themselves to potential carriers for a petty item “theft” which actually wasn’t a theft at all since the owner got her items back is ridiculously irresponsible. Jesus, really?
Having said that, I agree with those who cannot believe the backlash the OP is getting for being upset that her stuff was stolen. And both items were in fact stolen, no matter who here has tried to make the situation seem innocuous on the part of the thief.
Sorry OP, this just …s! I’ve experienced it. Friendly great barn worker just taking stuff out of unlocked tack trunks. It makes me upset just thinking about it. It’s terrible for everyone including the boarders and barn owner. I never did get my stuff back.
Personally, I did leave and didn’t look back. Other barns can be a great fit, just call and inquire.
In my case, the the barn owner did try by putting up notices that items were missing. I’m sure it was embarrassing for her too.
I think your choices are
Leave
Talk to the person directly
Ask the barn owner to let her go or not come on the property again
By the way, never did get anything back, so you are ahead of me on that one 😖
You know Karen, for someone who is so pious about how BUSY they are, you sure do have a lot of time to waste on the chronicle boards talking [edit] about a vest and hypothetical martingale. Maybe you should take up something worthwhile such as birdwatching or making tiny food videos. Maybe it might help you be a little less transparently REACTIONARY. I haven’t checked these boards in 15 years and yet, here you are, posting up a storm over something most people wouldn’t bother mentioning…
edited to add, after making it 4 pages in and quitting: yes I board with OP and she is the most Karen person I’ve ever met in my entire life- I once stood behind her shoulder while she made a scene over points or an upgrade or some [edit] checking into an LQ while I made sympathetic eye contact with the legit scared front desk worker. Like… textbook Karen through and through!
