(AF) I've been ROBBED! ! !

 Not sure where to even start on this one. A few months back, an elderly relative got a letter from the city stating that she had to tear her storage building down or be heavily fined. Another family member had been supposed to do some repairs on it, kept putting it off, and it finally started looking bad and the city took action. I took some time off from packing/moving, along with a cousin, and got everything in the building gone through, sorted and out of it. Cousin spent a lot more time on it than I did, even, but I was able to get quite a few days in.

For helping, I was given several boxes of things out of the building, including several boxes of some very old, unique, vintage canning jars. I had never even seen that kind before. Most of them were tall and skinny . . . some 1 1/2 pints and I think some were 3/4 pints. Some were square and some had a very pretty cut glass design in them. I was so excited and eager to can things in them this next spring and summer after Dave and I finally get to plant and work a garden together.

Since I have been in a messy move, everything has been topsy turvy, scattered, and the flooding in my house has grown drastically worse, I was told I could leave them there in her shop building (along with the other odds and ends items she gave me) until I finished moving from my house, then I could come pick them up. Sounded good to me.

Fast forward to December. She called me one day, asking if I had picked up the jars and stuff. I said no, I haven't had the time, and I don't have a key to it so I couldn't have if I had wanted to. She said that the jars and stuff were all missing, every last one of them! Someone had stolen them! Cousin, who had put the stuff in the shop building, came by to look and verify that nothing was any longer setting where she had put them. Everything else in the building seemed to be fine, but all of my stuff was gone. Well.... DANG IT!

It didn't look like the door nor lock had been tampered with, so someone had to have used a key to get in. She got someone that knew a lot about locks to check and no, no one had tampered with the lock. No sign of forced entry. At first there were two possibilities, then it was narrowed down to just one, with no doubt. This is so very heart breaking . . even more so because the likely thief is a close family member. He is strong and fully able bodied . . . could have been giving me a hand with some of this moving, or at least Dave a hand with the heavy stuff  . . . but instead, while I was tied up moving, slipped over to where some of my unique valuables were temporarily stored, most of which were vintage and some even antique, tools, too. This brings up so many emotions and can't even describe the all.

Yesterday, opportunity arose to confront the thief and ask him about it. Of course he denied it, and even gave a very childish, 2-year old style story that further proved that he had been the one that did it. He just made it even more obvious that he was the one. There is zero doubt. Plus, other stuff in the shop building that belonged to his buddy . . . stuff that was worth much more (many, many times over) what my stuff was worth, was all still there, totally untouched. So, the very person that could have given us a very, helpful hand, robbed me blind while I was busy packing and moving. This hurts to my very core! This person has stolen many things from me in the past and I have been staying away from him, but I guess that wasn't enough.

So, what would someone like that do with all of those jars? We were coming up on Christmas time, he is an alcoholic and for Christmas gifts, sometimes makes up some kind of special alcoholic drink that is poured up into pretty mason jars and given for gifts. That is what I am guessing my jars were used for. Did I get any kind of a gift from this person? Nope . . . I just got robbed, by an able bodied family member, instead.

Thank you for reading my post. Have a great day! .