[Howard Beale]

I was going to let this thread fade away but since somebody bumped it here's the rest of the story:

The $100 went missing on Tuesday. I locked up my money from then on and hid the key. Apparently I didn't hide the key well enough because on Saturday night I noticed that the box had been moved a couple of inches and when I counted the money in the box I was short $500 from the $3,800 I'd had. That was completely outrageous and I couldn't let that be so I went to the kid and said 'I'm missing $500. Look around in the computer room (where he was sleeping) and I'm going to look in my BR' but he didn't come up with the money. I didn't make a scene because I was worried about my mother's health. Just before taking my brother and nephew to the airport on Sunday I gathered up some spare change to put into our coin buckets that are on the kitchen counter. When they are full we cash them in at Fort McDowell which still keeps a coin counter and use it for Morton's. Anyway, one bucket was full and we'd started using the other one but I lifted the lid of the full one to see if I could fit in a few more coins and let out a largely involuntary, loud, 'What the heck?' when I saw that it was half empty and my mom saw what was going on and right away asked if her grandson might have taken the money. This was the last straw for me and, frankly, I was worried about the kid because while it's one thing to lift a $100 and even $500 and hope to get away with it it's another thing to take a half of a full coin bucket and hope that no one will notice but I still didn't want to start up right then so I told my mom that I'd call his mother since my brother is wound so tight.

I ended up calling my brother and telling him the story and to my surprise he took it calmly telling me that they'd already been having the same problem with the kid and he was going over to his ex's house to confront his son. I confess that I'm now mad at my brother for not warning us in the first place because I could've hidden everything to begin with and all of this wouldn't have happened.

End result: The kid confessed in like 2 seconds when confronted. Since my brother doesn't have money to burn they have purchased a plane ticket for 2 weeks from now and are sending my nephew right back here (he'll stay with a brother of his who lives nearby) to apologize in person and return the money. After he goes thru his ordeal I plan to take him aside and tell him that everybody does stupid stuff when they are his age, he's now forgiven and it will never be brought up by me in the future and he can still visit but to make sure not to do anything like that anymore. I also plan to tell him not to be so stupid. Put the damn box back like you found it, fool, and don't take HALF of a coin bucket.