The Energon Pub

Here's what happened:

I took $1000 with me to Botcon. My family came to California a day after so we could go to Disneyland and California Adventure for some fun. We also brought my little brothers friend along as we were able to get tickets on the cheap.

The problem occured when we got back in town last night. I spent aroung $750 at Botcon, but nothing at the theme parks. I know how much cash I had on hand. I woke up today and when I went to do errands with my dad, I noticed I'm missing about $140. My brother is also missing $150. The only person who could have taken money from us is my brothers friend. He also had a good oppurtunity when I went to take a shower last night. He would have had access to my room. The only thing he would have had to do was find the hiding place. Everything seemed untouched this morning so it makes me think he had the sense to put everything back in it's place. I honestly don't know how he pulled it off though as he's never been in my room before. (to my knowledge)

What bothers me the most about this is that he's been my brothers friend for almost 10 years. Our family will sometimes have him over for an entire weekend at a time. He's someone I thought could be trusted.

I'm really pissed off right now. We're going to talk to his dad soon so hopefully we'll get this fixed.

It truly is sad when you can't even trust those closest to your family.

Sorry for ranting, I'm just irritated beyond what I thought I could be. It's not so much that I care about the money, it's the fact that he took it and betrayed our trust.

Has anyone else been in this situation?

When I was younger I used to be friends with this family and their kids.

Four kids, the youngest of which is a little tyrant. Always causing problems at school and what have you. I guess he must've been about 3-5 at the time.

Me and one of the elder brothers were in the bedroom comparing wallets. I'd been given some money to spend while at theirs and the kid had some stories to tell of how he earned his. In strolls the youngest brothers, and we tried to shout him out of the bedroom because he's annoying like that. He sees we're looking at wallets and childishly boasts that he has "more than £100". Of course, we don't believe him and ignore him until he leaves.

He comes back in a moment later with his colourful kids wallet and produces the goods. About £110 in total as I recall. We instantly guessed he'd been at his mum's earnings for babysitting her friends kids (four kids and she's happy to tackle more. Crazy right?). So we rush downstairs and she's on the phone and tries to quiet us. So we grab the mug off the shelf where she puts her babysitting cash and show her that it's empty. She hangs up, and knows exactly whats happened before we even say anything.

That kid got a horrendous hiding as I recall. Little monster.

That's all I have to contribute.

Friggen thieves...

You're the second person I know today who has gotten jacked.

Sort of, not money, though. A friend of mine, and this was a few years ago, was over at my house, and I noticed him staring quite intently at the back of the case for Final Fantasy X-2. This is important, but for those who don't understand, I'll save that as a twist ending.

A while after he left, I began sorting up my games, and noticed Final Fantasy X-2 was missing. A few quick phone calls, my friend's dad bring me that game...except only the disc, as my friend seemed not to have the case. This, of course, was a lie; my games go straight from the console to their cases and vice versa, and anyone who breaks this one rule of mine never gets to touch it again. Aside from which, the case was later returned.

But this raises an interesting question. Why return the game but not the case? It must have meant that, by comparison, the game was less important, but that's like tossing a TF just to admire the box.

Remember when I said he was staring intently at the back of the case? It's important, because the back of the case features a picture of Yuna, in cutoff shorts, with a top that shows perhaps a bit too much by that character's normal standards. This raises yet another interesting question that I don't want to know the answer to.

ohhh damn.
well i have had my fair share of idiot friends. i had a similar situation here it goes: my friend, my mom and me were cleaning the house and we had tons of rare yu-gi-ho cards and we all had these cards and i still have em to this day, well my mom told my friend to put a card away an when he 'put it away' he stole it. we did not find out until after he left. so when he left one of my other friends came over told him about the situation and found out that by calling a card store that he was there. so my friend and me walked up to the card store 10 at night, he had just left so my good friend and me sold a lot of our cards to get my moms card back. that card was was worth 50 bucks on ebay. my ass hole friend sold it for 5 bucks. i have not seen him and talked to him for 4 years.
holy crap avatars are working!

I've never been stolen from directly like that: I like to think it's because I have some taste in humankind, but it's really probably just luck.

HOWEVER, I have been ripped off by friends. One guy I knew many years ago didn't want to take his gas guzzling truck on a family trip up to DC (also, he couldn't fit his whole family comfortably in his truck). So we 'swapped' vehicles--I had his truck and he took my little Neon.

He brought it back rolling on the donut. When I asked what happened, he basically snatched his truck keys from me and ran to his truck mumbling that the damaged tire was in the trunk.

He'd done *something* that damaged the tire AND the rim. I ended up replacing them at a used tire yard for a whopping total of $35.

And that's the lesson I learned: this 'friend' valued my friendship at somewhere LESS than $35. LIkewise, your brother's friend values your friendship (and your brother's) at a shockingly low price tag. All righty then. *I* think you're worth more, and you should think you're worth more. Ditch this 'friend'.

HK, people suck sometimes. Hope this didn't ruin your Botcon!

Some guy borrowed $500 from me and only paid back $100 a few years ago. I can't even remember the story he gave me to make me lend him the money.

I can't remember any particularly outstanding cases in which I've been stolen from.. although I think that an old friend of mine still has my copy of halo 2.. along with Shadowmans XBOX.. although I could be wrong about that..

Tweezy wrote:I can't remember any particularly outstanding cases in which I've been stolen from.. although I think that an old friend of mine still has my copy of halo 2.. along with Shadowmans XBOX.. although I could be wrong about that..

He still has 'em. And if he doesn't, we have to break his legs.

My wife loaned someone my Family Guy season 1 DVDs. She never returned them even though she insisted she would and has had plenty of opportunity (like dropping the set off at our mailbox). We've since lost touch with this person. It's not a huge deal--I could rebuy them for, pfff, about $20 now--but it's just the idea that someone would just willingly take something and either have no intention of returning them or just be too lazy to return them.

Edit: I should probably mentioned that the she in question isn't my wife but the person who borrowed the DVDs. The way it sounded, it was like my wife wasn't returning them.

I had a bunch of G.I.Joes sitting in my room while a buddy was over to check them out. I left him alone while I went to the bathroom. a minute, maybe a little longer. When I got out, he wasn't in the house anymore. Neither were my Joes. All that was left were the broken ones. I went over to his house, no answer. Called, no answer. And like magic, the machine was turned off. A few days later I finally found the guy. He accused me of keeping crappy toys. Excuse me- you stole my toys and they weren't crappy when I last saw them. I got them back after school that day- the waist bands were snapped and all the thumbs were broken off.

Thanks.

I've got one about being used to smuggle someone into prom. I felt like I was ripped off. Prom- this friend said he could set me up, blind date. No thanks. he told me this sob story about how he's going away after high school and won't see his lady again and she can't go if this friend doesn't go too... blah blah blah. So sure, I gave in. Nobody else wanted to go with me. So this was my First/Blind/Prom date all wrapped into one.

Long story short- His girl was Bi and this "friend of hers" was her female companion, I guess. So he used me to smuggle his girl and her girl into the prom. They disappeared the second I got in the front door.

Screw you dude.

When I was 6, I brought my Powermaster Optimus Prime to school. There was this other kid that had one as well. Well, I left school that afternoon, following waiting for ym dad to pick me up from after school care. I opened up my book bag and I noticed somehting wrong. The cab, Hi-Q, and some guns were missing. Only the trailer, the powermaster head, and two guns were left. We went bakc and told the people watching us. THye did a book bag search and came to said kid's book bag. They opened it and behold: the cab, and some of the guns. The principle had found Hi-Q elsehwere and gave him back to me. The kid was brought in and forced to sit out by the fence. I was lucky considering it was my favorite toy for quite a while (until I got Fort Max).

Honestly. I still don't understand why he did it. He had his own unless he misplaced those parts, which then would be his own fault.

Antoher time,a few eyars back, I had gottne the Energon Constructicons and formed Constructicon Maximus *Energon Devastator* He pulled it out because he doesn't know how to respect other peoples stuff. He fooled around with it and initially I didn't think of it as abig deal. He eventually removed the right foot and went down stairs with it. The following day, I went tof ind ti and it was gone. Needless to say, he wouldn't be responsible and just pay me five so I could get a replacement fig statting the fig wans't even worth $5 and was junk. He still owes me $5.

Then oen time he got mad because he was losing in an MLB game and threw a seat cushion at my Gundam models (thankfully they all survived undamaged) and in his anger, he threatened to take out my TFs if I continuted to tell him to stop all because even I do get frustrated when things don't go well in a game though I wouldn't wreck his stuff. He still thinks it's funny but I had told my dad about what he did and I told him whathe siad if he did it again Pay for repalcmeents if damaged or lose car insurance and him paying tuition. He denied that was gonna happen but since, he's not touched my stuff, aside some of my comics and PSP, which I don't mind so long as he doesn't damage them, but my TFs are off limits to him.

Wow, everyone has similar stories.

I'm still very dissapointed in the kid. We're trying to handle the situation carefully and I should get my money back, but it may take a bit longer than I'd like. What irritates right now though is that I planned to use that cash on a 1/8 Alucard kit by Wave. Now I have to budget more carefully.

Don't worry HK, the missing money didn't ruin Botcon for me. I tried to find you at the Con, but had no luck. I do think I know which Shattered Glass Starscream you bought though. I remember seeing one for $95. 10 minutes later, it was gone. Did you buy that one?

Shadowman wrote:Sort of, not money, though. A friend of mine, and this was a few years ago, was over at my house, and I noticed him staring quite intently at the back of the case for Final Fantasy X-2. This is important, but for those who don't understand, I'll save that as a twist ending.

A while after he left, I began sorting up my games, and noticed Final Fantasy X-2 was missing. A few quick phone calls, my friend's dad bring me that game...except only the disc, as my friend seemed not to have the case. This, of course, was a lie; my games go straight from the console to their cases and vice versa, and anyone who breaks this one rule of mine never gets to touch it again. Aside from which, the case was later returned.

But this raises an interesting question. Why return the game but not the case? It must have meant that, by comparison, the game was less important, but that's like tossing a TF just to admire the box.

Remember when I said he was staring intently at the back of the case? It's important, because the back of the case features a picture of Yuna, in cutoff shorts, with a top that shows perhaps a bit too much by that character's normal standards. This raises yet another interesting question that I don't want to know the answer to.

I like the X-2 art, but not to THAT level. I don't think I can look at my game the same way again. Thank you for warping my mind for the day.

I'm actually surprised Shadowman did'nt respond to my last comment.

Well, I've got an update. My brother and I both got our money back.

We didn't bring it up with his parents because we knew that his dad had control of his money. It was only a matter of time before his dad noticed all the extra cash. We figured it would be better to have his dad catch him than start making phone calls so this worked into our favor. We got our money back, and we didn't have to be the bad guy.

The kid is in a HEAP of trouble though and I hope he learned his lesson. My brother still wants to be his friend, but I'm sad to say that he may never regain the level of trust we once had in him.

Glad to see it worked out for you. But I think you should have a talk with your brother about picking friends. Or sticking with them anyway...