To the Editor:
We hope that our misfortune may serve as a cautionary tale to our friends and neighbors in and around Tryon and Polk County. Folks, if you have service people coming into your home, please keep an eye on them – no matter how much you may trust the company they work for!
We were having a routine service performed by a company we had done business with for over three years. My 90-year-old mother was in the house while this person moved from room to room.
While they chatted – out of sight of each other, he was stealing jewelry from both mine and my mother’s jewelry boxes and racks. Sadly, even though we discovered the thefts that evening when my husband and I returned home, we were unable to recover any of the stolen items. (Don’t expect certain gold buyers to cooperate if you go in asking questions.)
In addition, even though the company fired the employee the following work day, they were unwilling to compensate us beyond simply withholding a few hundred dollars from the employee’s final paycheck… a small fraction of what we lost.
Apparently, they feel that they have no further obligation in this case, which is very sad.
What does it mean when a company states that they’re “bonded and insured”? Not much, evidently.
The moral of the story: don’t leave anyone unsupervised in your home – even if you’ve done business with a company for a long time. They may not have properly screened their employee and you could end up losing valuable property or worse.
We can’t help but think what might have happened had my mother walked in the room while this so-called technician was stealing from us! Pretty scary… and a sad commentary on the times we’re living in.
– Lynn Turner, Tryon