I'm loosing my friggin' mnd! My DH has turned into a kleptomaniac! My things are disappearing right and left. Shoes, clothes, make-up. I can't find any of these missing things anywhere. I don't know what he's doing with them, but I sure can't afford to keep buying new clothes! It's rediculous! I asked him about earlier, and he flew into a rage, so I guess I'll keep my trap shut. Any one else here have/had this problem and if so, what did you do? HELP!!!!!
just keep him out of stores!! many here have had them take stuff from stores and find out later once home. it can get serious AD or not if they chose to file charges! oh boy. i have no words of wisdom but i would lock up any important jewelry and papers asap- put a lock on your closet! i did.. haha. yep i had lots of stuff go missing that never returned or found wayyy later. divvi
One night my DH got up & went through my purse & took my drivers license. I woke up as he was coming down the hall. When I went into the kitchen the contents of my wallet were all over the counter & I asked him if he had my drivers license. He said no, but I made him empty his pockets &*low & behold there it was! So now I put my purse out of sight. By the way, my DH keeps his pockets FULL of his "stuff"! Anyone else seen this in their spouse?
Don't they all. Monday my DH came home from day care with a pocket full of pens, pencils, crayons etc. along with his usual napkins and tissues folded neatly. the director of the day care said she can't keep up with the need for napkins. i hope she buys the really cheap ones. My MIL used to go thru purses that she saw. we were at a christening at a relatives home, who knows what she took out of the purses before I caught her going thru them. she got furious with me when I stopped her. Unfortunately, I know much more about AD now than I did then.
My DH has not gone there yet..He used to want to see the bills and the check book..not so much now. However. my mom had this issue..but with her it would flare up at night when dad would be asleep. I would come over in the morning to help get her started for the day and the clothes would be missing, one night the fringe on the bed spread was all cut off... But as to the clothes or anything valuable..lock it up in the trunk of the car. That is what I had to do to make sure mom had clothes to wear the next day. What I have done here is lock my jewelry,important papers, the guns, coin collection in our big huge armor plated safe. It has a day lock on it and I have the keys..and he doesn't know where the combo is. If you can get some sort of safe that would help with your important things. The other issues we had with my mom, since she was on meds, was to have a med box safe withe a key for the day time pills and safe with a dial for the bottles of meds. Most office supply stores have some sorts of little safe or lock boxes otherwise look for a vault Another idea would be a safe deposit box at the bank for your important papers, jewelry, silver etc. It may be a pain when you need something but at least it will be there. I kept my purse locked in the trunk of my car when we were at mom's house. Locks on the cabinets may just make your husband mad and take it out on you so an out of sight might work better.
I never thought about locking my clothes up, but that may be next! They disappear and then I find him trying to put on my shorts, or wearing my turtleneck sweater. Jewelry has been a fascination, as well, lately. I will find my rings on his fingers. (Probably good that most of it's costume.)
Silverware in the pockets is another big one. He hid a sharp knife in my purse this weekend. That was a surprise!
Makes it kind of a challenge in the morning getting me ready for work, him ready for daycare, and us out the door by 6:30 when half your stuff is missing. So it goes!
Candy bars in stores, dog biscuits to munch on at the farmer's market. Nothing "big" from stores yet, but I have to be vigilant so we can pay for whatever struck his fancy. He moves things around in the house all the time. Puts food & other items of interest in cupboards, drawers, fridge, pantry. I hide things I don't want him moving. Tried to lock pantry door, but it's out of plumb I guess because handle locks but doesn't latch. He'd notice a hook & eye at top. I lock ice cream in freezer now. Worse than a toddler. He did bring me wild flowers one day this week:)
Stealing, hiding, hoarding, and putting objects that don't belong there in their mouths are all traits of Alzheimer's..... One man told me that his wife took her jewelry out of her jewelry box and hid it every day because she was certain gremlins were going to steal it. He found it in her underwear drawer, his socks, rolled in cloth napkins, in her pillow case, etc. And this was expensive stuff. He would put it back in the jewelry box, assuring her that it was safe and to please leave it there, to find that the next day she had hidden it in other places!!!! He honestly kept this up for over a month!!! I suggested to him that he find it and put the good stuff in the safety deposit box and replace it with inexpensive costume jewelry as close to the real thing as he could get. He hasn't gotten back to me on that as yet. I hope it worked!
My husband would buy a box of chocolate covered doughnuts, eat one and hide the box - then forget where he hid it - and I would find it after they were hard as a rock. I threw a full box away, and he saw me and went and got one out of the trash and was going to eat it, but was caught in time!!!! <grin>
Others have said that they find their spouses wearing three layers of clothing for fear that someone will steal their clothes....
It is amazing where they put items too...
For almost a year - after I got home from work, I played hide and seek!!!!!! I made it into a game so that I wouldn't pull my hair out...I'd be hairless by now otherwise!!! <grin>
FYI - When I did some nursing work in LTC at the begining of my career, the female staff was always eager to provide the female patients with an empty purse to carry around but they could not understand why the guy patients always stuffed their pockets with napkins.
Answer? Us guys have had our pockets filled with wallets, keys, combs. etc our entire life! It feels unnatural to have empty pockets. ;-)
My MIl (when she lived with us) used to hide food. My house began to reek... as you can imagine. i found sandwiches in the magazine rack, bananas in the sofa cushions, Can't even remember what else. It's evidently normal for AD sufferers. and makes our life much more interesting. right?
I could write a book,matter of fact somewhere here my story of problems with LOs purse is posted,it got so bad I chained it to the bed inside a big lock box,when that didn't work I got a luggage finder from JC Pennys,its a little alarm system locked that to her purse then I could push button on sender an alarm on purse would ring wherever she hid it,when she was finally admitted to assisted living I found that she had gone thru file cabinet an now car titles are missing,all legal papers for home gone,at the home she's at now she enters other rooms an takes pictures moves things around,must drive the people batty there,but I sure do miss that gal
LOL as a matter of fact I got the whole thing an she's on a diet,2cups of food in the am an she dances for a can of green beans in the evening,it will be interesting to find out how much she's lost since her benefactor moved on, altho LO told me today that the dog was on the table at assisited living home an she had to chase her off before the "kids" saw her
I STILL haven't found the refrigerator water filters that I wanted to give to some neighbors when we bought a new refrigerator that used other filters. It has to have been 3 or 4 months ago.
DH's wedding ring, I'm sure he put it in a safe place. (lol) so I purchased a inexpensive one for him to wear, and I'm sure at some point, the real one will show up. I've taken all the important papers away from him, now. Anyway, I hope I got them all. he used to keep everything on file, and suddenly, he started taking everything out of the files, and hide them.... who knows where. As I have found papers, I have filed them myself. hopefully to never lose them.
For those papers...get a safe of some kind that locks...I have the coin collection, my jewelry, the important papers all locked up. If you have any kind of things that could be used like a weapon such as some sort of knives or guns etc lock that away too..it may even come to pass that we need locked boxes for medicines. Get rid of any kind or rocks of the decorative kind that may surround plants since they will put them in the mouth...( my mom did that one)..
The wedding ring may or may not show up. I told my aunt when my uncle was placed in the nh, i suggested she take his ring home to which she said his hands were so large it would never come off...well my mom had hands like that with large knuckles and she got her off. The next time we went to visit, uncle's ring was gone...and I know where he hid it but there was no way to get to it in the gardens..how he did I'll never know but the staff looked high and low and never found it but my uncle told me in hid pantomine way...
Wise advice, Mimi. I've been wondering if it's time to lock up the papers. I've already locked away the one gun we had - an old pistol that belonged to DH's father. Of course, neither of us can find the ammunition, so it probably didn't matter. But I do worry about documents we might need.
Mimi, your comment about rocks reminds me of an event I have mentioned previously. My wife was sucking on her hearing aid, and managed to bite it in half. I have not replaced it.
and lets not forget some of the less obvious ones. i found my DH chewing on the rubber grapes that were in a pretty decorative fruit bowl in the kitchen. a small rubber grape swallowed could have been a big problem. put up cleaning products that could be confused for any sort of drinks, and anything that could be a choking hazard. divvi
This a.m. after church I noticed my hb took the key to our freezer out of his pocket and was showing it proudly to a friend. I said, "Well thank you for keeping that for me," and took it. I must have inadvertently left it out of it's usual hiding place in my desk drawer. Only have one key; could have been a major problem. Glad he was showing it off in front of me! I've got to become more aware of what I put where.
extra keys are always a good thing an hide them well,LO took all the keys off key board early on,still can't find one set of keys to new car with the push button thing a ma bob,big stainless dog bowls,remote control, important papers,you name she moved it or rather hid it.
Oh holy crap......my son went to get a cookie out of the cupboard last night and guess what he found next to the cookies? The flank steak I had in the fridge for dinner tonight. Tossed it because I have no idea how long thad been there! Good Lord! :(
This is an old story for many of you, but several years ago, I could not locate one of DH's small hearing aids. The red/blue peanut sized ones that fit down into the ear canal. I held one in my hand and as I got close to Foster it would ring (feedback). I searched his clothes, his chair,... everywhere. As I'd get close to him.. it would ring. As I'd step back, the ringing would stop. I put my head to his chest and it rang louder. As I looked up, I spotted it,... far up inside his nostril. It took an hour to get that out..it was wedged so far up it was in the opening between the two nostrils at the bridge of his nose. I could just see me walking this handsome man into some emergency room and explaining to the Triage Nurse that my husband had his hearing aid wedged in his nostril. You just never know what they may do next. He had four orifices. Two ears, one nose and one "other place". I'm just so glad it wasn't in the "other place".