Would you tell the mom if their kid steals?

The hockey season has just started at school, and Little Miss had her first official hockey lesson yesterday. We had to go and buy the mouth guard as well, as they are not allowed to play if they don't have one.

When I went to fetch her yesterday, she told me that her mouth guard was missing when she had to get dressed for her hockey practice. She saw that a friend of hers was running around with one that looks exactly the same as hers. She told her different stories about where she got it from. Since she don't have hockey, it is strange that she had the same one yesterday.

I asked the friend about where she got it. She first told me it was from Pick 'n Pay. I then asked if I could phone her mother. She then said now she got it from her father. (They are divorced) I then said could I phone the father. She then changed the story that it comes from her aunt (or lady that is married to the father). I had to leave it at that...

I went and bought another mouth guard as it is already ruined. It is one of those mouth guards you have to heat up and fit exactly to the teeth.

My question is: Do I phone the mother to tell her about a potential issue? It seems the girl is already using the divorce to scapegoat between the two parents. I am sure she told the mother she got it from the father.
Or do I just leave it? (If I am the parent, I would like to know.)

Who steals a garden umbrella?

The weather is like summer here. And weekends translate into being outside and braais(barbeques). We had a patio umbrella the previous weekend.

This weekend it was gone!

Who steals garden umbrellas? It is a very heavy, especially with the metal base. Dries walked around in our complex to see if someone had nicked it. We can’t imagine seeing someone walking out with it under their arms. Not that it would be that strange... Reality is stranger than fiction!

It could have been the garden services on Wednesday. They trimmed our neighbour’s trees, and it’s possible they could have smuggled the umbrella and stand out with the tree branches.

The case of the missing umbrella... Another crime statistic? No, not even worth mentioning here with our large crime levels in South Africa.

Just suck it up! It is very frustrating! It’s not like we have back pocket money on hand to go out and buy a new one immediately...

What has been stolen from you that are worth a lot to you, but not worth going to the police about it?