You are in college… right?
Call the police. In most areas that is burglary (entering on a dwelling not your own without permission in order to commit a crime, or in order to steal something, depending on the jurisdiction) and is likely to be grand larceny.
Then ask the DA for reimbursement to be a part of any sentence agreement, or as part of an agreement to reduce and dismiss on fulfillment of conditions.
Well, I’m on a leave of absence…but what does this have to do with anything?
ETA: I’m not against calling the police, but is there really anything they can do? It was cash, so not really traceable.
A key-lock your bedroom door costs about $20-$50, depending, and is easy to install as a replacement in-kind for your existing doorknob. It sounds like as long as you’re going to have criminals or probable criminals come in and out of your house, it would be a sound investment.
Alternately, a Sentry Fire Safe will keep the casual thief away, for about the same amount of money.
If it makes you feel any better, my wife had her camera stolen on Christmas day (not a new camera, she’s had it for a few years). We were all at my aunt’s house. I know EVERY person there, they are all family. We have a good guess as to who it was, but no one saw anything happen, so there’s not much we can do. Fucking sucks.
Reporting the theft is usually a requirement of any homeowners or renters insurance policy. Do you have one?
A police investigation might get one of them to 'fess up. Unlikely, but possible. At least, it would make it clear that you are serious and willing to call in the police. Might make them hesitate about taking other items that are more traceable than cash.
I had the same thing happen to me many years ago. We had gone away for the weekend leaving my mother and her boyfriend the only ones in the apartment. When we returned our $70 for groceries was missing. We kept it in a wooden box on our dresser. Now the only people that knew we kept it there was my mother and her boyfriend. My mom said she did find the front door open at one point during the day but she thought the wind blew it open. The latch was bad and you did have to pull it hard to make sure it was closed. She had not left the apartment all weekend but her boyfriend had several times.
We suspected him and that he left the door open on purpose to give the impression that it could have been someone else. How they knew to go right to the box in our room was questionable. The room was not rummaged through in any way. Just the money in the box was missing. The $300 for rent that was sitting in a drawer just below the box was untouched.
We could not prove it of course. It was our mistake for letting them know were we kept money. It was not a “here is our money thing” but a more of I am running to get beer anyone want anything and we said yeah and to grab a ten from the box on our dresser. Dumb I know and we learned an expensive lesson.
If you can’t replace the door knobs you can get a chain lock that you can set and requires a key. The door will still open but only about two inches.
Even though you are throwing out the roommates you should still install one.
Another reason it’s good to call the police is that it starts a record of what’s going on. If next week more money get’s stolen, they’ll start paying closer attention.
OTOH, you never know what the police already know. Who knows, you might report it and find out that the police caught someone yesterday that broke into three other apartments right in your own building. There’s a good chance it’s the same person.
So, to add to the fun, my roommates and I discovered that I am missing a FUCK TON of my DVDs as well. At the very least I am missing:
Season 1, 2, and 3 of Scrubs
Seasons 1, 2, 3, and 4 of Futurama
Seasons 3, 4, 5, and 7 of The Simpsons
Seasons 1, 2, 3, 4 of Babylon 5
As well as a few random movies here and there.
Fucking great.
Again. Get one of these to put on your door.
My mom has one as she does not trust her landlord or any of his crew. So when she leaves she locks the chain lock as well as the door lock. This prevents anyone from coming in. It is also extra security and privacy when you are home and in your room.
It’s definitely past time to get the police involved. I learned my lesson about that when I had a crappy car stereo stolen, and found out later that the store I bought it at had a policy of replacing stolen car stereos when you could present them with a copy of the police report.
And if you can’t get decent roommates, do get a decent room lock. And use it. All the time.
OK, so what’s your path forward?
Apparently this week hasn’t shit on me enough, so today I found out my new car (well, used, but bought in October) needs over $2000 worth of work to make it pass inspection…which ran out last month.
What a fucking way to start off the new year, huh?
I’m gonna put in another vote for calling the police. Play dumb, pretend you don’t have clue who it was. Let the police deduce what they will from statements such as “The only people here were my roommate and his friends.” If nothing else it might spook them enough to at least knock it off. Maybe make some comment about putting up hidden cameras. (Maybe even buy them and return them later after everyone has seen them in the house).
Also worth checking out what the law is on your involvement if they are drug dealing. I understand that you can be liable for prosecution if drugs dealing is going on/drugs are found at your premises and you turned a blind eye to it(or can’t prove you didn’t know). This could just be UK though but worth investigating.
Kicking them out doesn’t entirely solve it either - they’ve got nothing to lose now so who says they won’t take with them anything they want for themselves? Your Wii, your DVDs, etc? They should all be under lock and key for now at least.
If drugs are the cause of this, from what I know through my work with drug users, everything has a retail value - we had a guy at one of the projects I work up on the roof stealing the tiles!
To give an update: Last night, someone stole my roommate’s credit card and an old ID (for some reason they decided to take his old expired asbestos worker license…) out of his wallet. We both filed police reports today, but they basically told us “tough shit, there’s not much we can do.” We have no way to prove it was the roommates or their friends, and don’t even have names for the friends, so that’s that. But at least there’s a record of it.
Oh, and yeah, they still haven’t paid a dime of what they owe, which is over $680, and that’s just to me. They owe something like $100 to the other roommate for the electric bill.
Why are they still coming around if they are in debt to both of you?
If you’re looking for sympathy for your shitty situation continuing to be shitty, with you and your good (?) roommate apparently doing nothing about it, sorry, I’m all out.
Well here’s the thing: if I kick them out right now, I have NO hope of getting any of that money back. If I let them stay till the end of the month, there’s a chance I can get some of it back. A good chance? Hell no, but a small chance nonetheless.
Plus, I have no spine and hate confrontations… 
There’s your problem, bucko. I bet they knew that.