concernedsister

Over the 4 years she has been a heroin addict, she has stolen tons of jewelry, money and credit cards from my parents. She has pawned their ipods, coach purse, computer, etc. Now she was in detox for 9 days and left. My parents haven't heard from her in a week. We were all wondering where she was getting the money to get high. Apparently she had written down my fathers credit card number and has been using that for the last week to have Western Union money transfers sent (from my dad) to her.

My parents have previously reported the cards stolen and the charges were reversed. In this case, its quite obvious that the recipient of the money was her, so there is no way to report it lost/stolen without implicating her. What can they do? My mother is in complete despair. They are almost bankrupt because of her. They can't pay this bill, they have to report it. They are ready to have her arrested.

Will the police arrest her? Will the card company press charges?

Unitl now, they didn't want her to have a permanent record in hopes she would still get her act together and get into college - so she would still have a chance at a good career.

I thought one option would be for my parents to go and find her and confront her and give her the option of going to detox and then to get the naltrexone implant OR she goes to jail. If she leaves detox or doesn't get the implant, they would call the police immediately. Yes, the would have to pay for the money she's taken, but if it gets her clean in the longer run it would be worth it?

My mother thinks she has no choice but to report her and attempt to have her arrested. HOwever, in the past when they attempted to press charges for a stolen check, the police weren't really acting on it at all since it was a family member and a small amount of money.

Any insight and advice would be greatly appreciated!