Home Health Aide just stopped showing up- could it be theft?

If this was less than a month, say, or six weeks ago, if I were you I would send her a text saying "please get in touch, we just want to know you're okay because we don't know why you stopped coming to work." The worst that can happen is nothing.

My guess would be that she was finding it too difficult to meet her working hours, made a mess of it, and then was too embarrassed to explain and found it less awkward just to run away and hide. Not a very mature way to go about things but I've known people do stupider.

Can people please not make assumptions about the thieving propensities of workers in proportion to their pay grade? I can't help but find it insulting both on my own behalf and that of my co-workers. I am in a minimum wage social care job. Nobody who cares about the job is in it for the money.

I would send a letter, certified, to her home stating that since she has not shown up for work or bothered to contact with the reason she seems to have quit, you are now severing ties with her. If you owe her money, I would include the check with "paid in full" on the memo line. If she cashes it, she can't come after you claiming you owe her more.

I would also contact and place a review and a complaint.

Kimmotion, just to be on the safe side, if your aunt still writes checks, go through the books of checks and make sure no individual checks are missing. My grandmother had a caregiver who was smart enough not to steal a whole book of checks. Instead she went through all the spare books and randomly took a couple of checks out of each book. She got caught because she got greedy and cashed too many in one month and my grandmother's bank called and said she was overdrawn. The bank made good on all the forged checks, and we prosecuted the caregiver.

I don’t see in your post any mention of who the ‘elderly person’ is??

There’s a lot of assumptions and false stereotypes made about the aide, socioeconomic class and so on

Why would your aunt assume she stole something when as you explained there was no basis for this—-she doesn’t sound like a very nice person

You also say the aide is from a ‘rich area’ - what does this have to do w anything? You made a comment implying it’s strange that a well off person would be a caregiver. Are you saying only poor or disadvantaged people find caregiving meaningful? By the way just bc someone lives in a certain area it doesn’t automatically mean they themselves have the same amount of wealth or lack of wealth. A wealthy person could live with someone else in a middle class area and vice versa- a person without much money could live with someone else in a nicer area. Or many variations in between

Your aunt doesn’t sound like a very nice person to assume the reason she left is bc she stole something. I’m inclined to think your aunt made some negative or presumptuous comments to her along the way and she grew increasingly uncomfortable and finally stopped coming altogether

Edit to add— after I posted this I read below the update and can say with confidence your aunt sounds like a piece of work - I believe she is a dishonest person herself who it sounds like wasn’t paying the caregiver and projected that onto the caregiver claiming she must have stolen something - as pretty much every single person here has said it’s wrong of your aunt to make a baseless assumption such as this. I feel like your aunt was mean to her and was pushing her around not paying her etc and the aide got increasingly uncomfortable ( you said she started coming less and then stopped coming altogether) bc of how she was being treated.

Have you asked to have your aunt verify to you that the home health aide was paid in full? If not- why? The aide told you she wasn’t paid- and asked you to assist her in being paid, your responsible to ensure the caregiver has been paid

It is a strange world we're a living in. Looking for staff at work, people do not show up for interviews. Once offered the job, they accept, then do not show up or even call. Strange things going on everywhere.

I wouldn't think theft either.

Maybe the Caregiver Aide was not being paid?

UPDATE:

After *over* a month of no communication, the aide finally called me back: "Ohhh, I've been trying to get in contact with your aunt. Something happened with my daughter. I haven't been working much. Your aunt owes me money."

First of all, she's full of it. She could have called me if she couldn't get through to my aunt and contact would have been made, so that's bs. And second, we caught her- we used a friend's phone to text her asking about her availability as an aide for the times we would have had her scheduled and sure enough she was available to work! Liar, liar, pants on fire.

So I was right- she didn't steal from us. She found something else, and is now calling to collect what we owe her. Sorry lady, you gotta go a long way to pull the wool over our eyes. I may be young, but I'm not stupid.

Probably not theft....you just got ghosted. Happening a lot now in employment and personal relationships.

Sounds to me like you don’t have the whole story. Since your aunt seems to have a problem with her she probably had some kind of disagreement with her and the woman just left in frustration. Or was told not to come back. She probably even told the aunt that she wasn’t coming back. The thing about this theft is totally made up. I can’t blame the woman for leaving frankly, sounds like an untenable situation when there are so many other opportunities out there. If you’re able to figure out what you owe her just pay her and be done with it.

First thing to do is report the actions, not returning calls, not showing up.
Actually first thing is to check all credit cards, make sure not unauthorized purchases were made. Freeze accounts. Check credit reports from each of the reporting companies.
And you should also report her earnings to IRS. Send her a statement so she can report her earnings when she files her taxes.
Yes I have had a caregiver that stole from me. She stole things, not credit cards or information but she took money, jewelry, food, toilet paper.....
I did file a report, she did have to appear in court.

Seeing other comments...
If the caregiver is owed money she must be paid.
How would you like to go to work and not get paid for all the hours you put in.
If this caregiver were to post and comment on what happened what would their story read like.? Would we be telling her to contact the state labor board? A lawyer? Would I or anyone else suggest that she contact and report that she has not been paid in full and that the contact person is difficult to get a hold of?