What would you expect out of this situation...

In My Humble Opinion
1

I’ll try to keep this somewhat brief since all the little details don’t really matter…

My parents had two guys installing two new furnaces at their house today. At one point my sister walked into the kitchen and heard one of the guys shutting a drawer and looking up at her with a stunned look on his face, as if caught by surprise. I say ‘heard’ because this drawer makes a very specific sound since it’s filled with things like tylenol, advil (can you guess where this is going?) etc…so it makes a bit of a racket when everything gets shuffled around. My sister, a bit spooked by this mentions it to my mom. Mom calls dad to ask him if there’s any reason for this guy to be in the kitchen. Nope, no reason at all. Mom confronts him, he says he was on his cell phone (which he was), maybe it was partially opened and he bumped into it. Okay, they let it go for the moment.
I asked my other sister about it, and she said she caught him earlier in a kitchen cabinet as well as the pantry, but she’s pretty laid back and didn’t really think much of it. Also she could hear his footsteps in one of the bedrooms on the second floor (there’s a t-stat up there, but not in that bedroom)…blah blah blah etc etc etc. This new info, combined with the drawer incident seems kind of damning so I mentioned it to Dad. Dad called HVAC guy’s supervisor, said he’s uncomfortable with this team. The only way the works gets finished (two day project) is with a new crew AND the supervisor there the entire time. Plus, I’m sure dad will be in the house and watching like a hawk as well.

Fast forwards to just a few minutes ago. They just called me to let me know that all the percocets in the house are missing. One physical bottle is gone and the other two are empty. These three bottles were located in two different places in the house, neither in locations necessary for one to go in order to install a furnace.
Now it all makes sense. It seems he must have been looking through the kitchen and finally hit the ‘jackpot’ when he found the drawer with the meds (nothing narcotic in there). It explains the footsteps in the bedrooms without the t-stat, the bathroom lights that were left on, the open closet doors etc. Nothing appears to be missing other then the meds. Money and jewelry that was left out is all still where it was.
So, they’ve transitioned from, ‘we just don’t like him’ to ‘clearly he stole our meds’

Anyways, dad will fill in the supervisor on this new info tomorrow and let them finish the job provided they send a new crew and the supervisor is on site the entire time.

My question is, what would you expect the HVAC company to do, if anything, to apologize for this? An apology? Discount? Return of the meds? New meds to replace them (which would be illegal and I don’t think anyone would expect that), a letter or phone call letting you know that he was fired?

Personally, I’m not sure. I wouldn’t use the company again, so I really wouldn’t care if they fired him. An apology would be useless since the meds would still be gone. This job is somewhere in the neighborhood of $8000, I think a 5-10% discount wouldn’t be uncalled for. Actually, now that I think about it, if they told me that they got rid of him and did a good job handling the situation, I could see using the company again.

The hard part (for the company) is if they’ve never had a complaint about this guy and as far as they know he isn’t a pill popper, they really don’t have any reason to believe us over him.
TLDR version
HVAC guys come to install new furnace, steal pain meds. What do you expect HVAC company to do in return?

2

I would consider calling the police about this. With a police report, it’s possible you might be able to replace the pain meds without quite so many hoops to jump through, pharmacy-wise.

I would expect profuse apologies and a discount from the company.

3

I second the police report, the sooner the better before the thief has a chance to make up a story implicating someone else. I never met a liar so creative as an addict.

4

I think most of them are beyond their ‘discard after’ date and into “my [body part] is killing me, I’m going to take a percocet and lay down” date (did that make sense). So I’m not sure that would do any good at the point. Besides, if they need them refilled my dad’s orthopedic surgeon that he sees for his gout, bad knee, bone spur and handful of other things is pretty loose with the pain meds, so I don’t think he that concerned about getting more.
I’ll mention the police report to him in the morning.

5

This. Get it it all on the official record. It may mean squat to the HVAC company, or it may mean a lot. So what. If it happened to you, it’s happened to others. If it’s not reported, if not stopped now, when will it? When someone loses cash? Jewelry? Or when they get caught red-handed and decide to take it out on the homeowner or family member?

6

A member of their crew robbed your house. You should file a police report and insist on an entirely different crew and a discount on the order of 30%.

7

My husband works for a construction management company, and he said that his company would fire the guy instantly if there was proof - he would be removed from the job but not fired if there was no proof. No discounts would be offered.

8

Definitely pursue the police report.

Also, is calling the HVAC company and telling them they have 24 hours to come pick up their furnaces and put everything back the way it was, on the table?

There are many HVAC companies looking for work during this recession . . .

9

A dealbreaker. I’d have absolutely no reservations about finding another contractor to finish the work. If a company’s policy is “If you catch one of our workers robbing you, we’ll send someone else over next time!” and nothing more, then that company’s not getting into my house.

10

This. It’s all hearsay, unless you have proof. For all the company owner knows, it’s your mom and dad that are the scammers and they pull this any time they want a discount.

11

I don’t think it’s appropriate to look for anything from the company except the replacement crew to finish the job, an apology, and basic cooperation with the police, if there is a police report and investigation. I’m sure the company will fire the guy if any real evidence turns up, but frankly petty theft by one employee is not grounds for the revocation of the whole contract. Cat Whisperer’s husband has laid out the position I’d expect virtually all contractors to take in such circumstances. Pressing the company for a discount in addition isn’t warranted, and will make things worse, not better, for your folks.

12

Someone brazen enough to steal pills while the homeowners are right there underfoot may be unhappy with getting canned or even just called on the carpet for his theft, and he obviously knows where your family lives…

Be careful, a junkie could certainly nurse a grudge and come back at 3am to toss a brick thru a window or somesuch.

If your folks get his boss involved, they might as well go all the way and call the cops while they are at it.