The thred about the kitchen made me think about this.

The thievery that goes on in Mormon buildings. It always shocked me. The RS has a wall of closets that they store things in. It is always under lock and key. The temple has lockers so you can keep your belongings locked up while you're there.

When I was a member I recall all kinds of things that people stole. The table clothes that the RS used, the scout stuff was constantly getting stolen. A trailer, tents, hatchets, tarps, coolers, all went missing. People's coats would disappear off the coat rack. Knives, pots, pans, dishes, paper towels, napkins, dish soap, all walked away.

What's up with this? Obviously many mormons have a problem with taking things that don't belong to them. Any thoughts of why?

No kidding!!

We had so many things loaned out to members who never returned our goods. It's called scruples which they don't have!

Don't ever loan out books, CD's, kitchen appliances, or money $$$

Money is the worst one, don't give them money because they won't ever remember borrowing it from you.

"What? Who me? No, you must be mistaken, I don't remember you loaning me money. I thought you gave me the money to keep, for myself, just for me, a gift, a hand out."

Complete amnesia when it comes to returning your sh!t.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/14/2014 04:33PM by sistertwister.

I had a mormon neighbor who used to help himself to anything he wanted in our garage. The last straw was when he hooked up to our boat and drove off.

We considered reporting it stolen. I wish we had. Instead we made sure to always keep everything locked up. He started bad mouthing us after that. He was a real ass. He lost everything he had to MLM schemes, and their house went back to the bank. They went back to Utah. Good riddance.

I almost have to call BS on this...How can you NOT call the police when a neighbor takes YOUR boat out of YOUR garage without asking you...or if he did ask you and you said no....


I hope your push-over days are done..

He asked, I told him he had to ask my husband because it was his boat. It was parked up next to our house.

I left to go to the grocery store. On my way home I saw him drive by with our boat! It wasn't anything fancy, but it was the principal of the matter.

My husband went down to the beach and told him to take the boat back or we'd report it stolen. He took it back to our house, but he was mad as hell. We offered to sell it to him, but he wasn't interested in that. We sold it a couple weeks later to someone else.

Saying I'm shocked would be an understatement. You're a bigger person than me....

I would have reported the boat missing, just saying! You're a nice neighbor I guess.

If they return any loaned money it's only after they have paid tithing on it 90% is better then nothing.

When you believe you are guided by some imaginary divine being you are able to justify any immorality and irrationality you care to commit including: genocide, polygamy, polyandry, Mountain Meadows Massacre, the massacre of natives in Utah by the Mormon settlers, the treatment of women as property, blood atonement, the multitudes of MLM scams and Ponzi schemes in Utah, the Strengthening Church Members Committee spying on church members, the lying for the Lord doctrine, fighting against civil rights, and on and on and on.

I couldn't believe when the missionaries told me to not leave my stuff around as things go missing. Who would steal from a church?

I was in RS once when the young womens leader stormed in saying some one had taken a hideous woman structure from the YW cupboard.She insisted it had happened that day as it was there before SM.I suggested we emptyed our bags, there was some very dirty looks thrown my way so may have been a few guilty folk..

The next week my bible was stolen. My bible. Why would some one steal a bible? Surely everyone would have one?

That's why mormons have their named embossed on the front of their scriptures in big gold letters.

When I was at YBU, a friend worked as a sort of mystery shopper for the bookstore. She browsed items and pretended to shop but really was watching for shoplifting. She told me that the #1 most pilfered item there was scriptures, particularly the pricey leather-bound quads.

Owner of a small bookstore once told me the most frequently stolen books in her store were bibles. She kept them behind the counter.

Only twice have I ever been around a theft, once was by my Mormon friend, once was in the Mormon ward house during a mutual event (my moms purse got stolen).

Makes one wonder.

My brother's bicycle was stolen from the bishop's storage once. It was never replaced.

This high profile attorney is Mormon and got busted shop lifting

http://www.8newsnow.com/story/10185251/i-team-prominent-attorney-target-of-criminal-investigation

Sounds like he's a real upstanding citizen. Makes one wonder what he got away with that nobody knows about.

In a ward I was in people demanded keys from us all the time. Even when we only gave keys to the people who needed them, the people who had them would steal stuff in the closets. When we refused to give people keys, they took screwdrivers and broke the locks off, leaving just the holes behind. Finally only a couple of people got keys after that. I said goodbye to anything that I didn't nail down. I lost many umbrellas and would curse the people who stole them. Made my wife mad: "They must have needed them more than you."

"Thou shalt not steal"...

This is one of the 10-commandmants...though it is in the imperfect holy bok, The Bible.

Since the BoM is a rip-off of the the Bible...are there ANY commandmants in it??

Maybe they take other members' covenant to give everything to the church a little too seriously?

When I was in my greenie area of my mission, my trainer companion bought a nice leather breast collar for a saddle from an Amish man's leather shop. Being Amish he didn't have a machine to take debit or credit cards, so he could only make this transaction with cash. My companion didn't have any cash on him, so I loaned him the 65 or 70 dollars, or however much it was. I think he ended up only repaying me about $40 of it, and told me he'd pay me the rest in the spirit world. No shit, those were his exact words.

May I submit for your reading pleasure the following story about Joseph Smith Jr by his own mother.

Our story begins the night of September 21, 1827. Mother Smith just watched her son Joseph and daughter in law Emma Smith drive off with the horse and wagon of Joseph Knight Sr. Who was a guest asleep in the Smith home.

Mother Smith stayed up all night with concern for her son. In the morning as she was making breakfast she states the following;

Mr. Knight came in quite disturbed."Mr Smith"said Mr. Knight "my horse is gone. I can't find him on the premises."

"Never mind the horse, " mother Smith said" you do not know all the knooks and corners in the pastures. I will call William (her son); he will soon bring the horse"

Basically, Joseph and Emma steal a horse and wagon and Joseph's Mother covers for him.

This was also the night Joseph obtained the plates.

This is from "A history of Joseph Smith by his Mother" chapter 22

She should have said he didn't know all the crooks in the corners of the pastures.

Things disappear in my church too. Purses disappear because women let down their guard because they feel safe in church.

The biggest deal is made about the table cloths. The ratty, stained table cloths! Most groups just rent table cloths so they don't have to deal with the "Presbyterian Women." When I do anything in the kitchen there, I take my own dish soap and dish towels because there never are any.

A few years ago I gave the kitchen a good cleaning (still filthy) and I found two drawers absolutely crammed with plastic shopping bags, and one crammed with 1970's era aprons. Oh yeah, and a mummified cantaloupe.

My digital camera in its case and a number of spare data cards were stolen from the Seminary room where we were setting up food for a friend's birthday party. Left it on the table in full view of the entire classroom while i went to the head, and when i came back it was gone.

I was basically taught I couldn't rely on my own intuition (just the Holy Ghost), and being a forgetful person anyhow, assumed i had set it down somewhere else and didn't make an immediate fuss. Never found it, though I'm pretty sure i know who the thief was. But, no proof meant it was my fault for 'losing' it. Ha.

A few missionaries in Japan stole bicycles. Some apartments had a room full of stripped parts. They always said the bicycles had been "abandoned".

Before leaving for Christmas vacation in college I left my hat on the rack in a Presbyterian church. Two weeks later, it was still there, not stolen.

At my mainstream Christian church, we have a large lost-and-found storage box and a shelf in the kitchen for unclaimed cookware and such, plus coats and umbrellas which accumulate in the coat closet. Once or twice a year, everything is set out to be claimed and the leftovers are donated to Goodwill.

In thirteen years, I don't recall any mention of items having been stolen - just reminders and pleas to take home anything which belongs to us.

I wonder if the almost compulsory tithing within the mormon church creates resentment and a sense of entitlement or repayment - especially since only about 1% of tithing dollars are returned to the local wards.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/15/2014 11:15AM by Plaid n Paisley.

Your statement makes perfect sense!

Mormons believe in give and take... and since they give so much to the church they figure they can take whatever they can find.

If there was writing on the wall in a M-church, someone would take that.

That might be a good place to leave a testimony.

M@t

lol!

Nice observation!

I think this comes from the sense of entitlement that goes along with paying tithing. "I paid tithing and therefore, I deserve blessings. Everything in this building was paid for with tithing money, therefore, it's mine."

You can't even trust them in the temple. When I got sealed there I was told I couldn't wear the wedding rings my mother had given me that my father had given her and that she'd saved for me for 18 years. I'd long looked forward to having them and wanted to wear them that day to feel that I had my parents with me. Alas, I was told by the temple matron that I couldn't wear them. So, I went back to my locker and put them in with the rest of my things, but did not lock it because it's the temple and, of course, nobody would steal anything in the temple.

After my sealing I went back to my locker and guess what? My rings were gone. I searched everywhere and they were just gone and I never saw them again. I reported them missing to lost and found but of course, they never showed up.

I will always be angry about that.

I'm sorry for your loss - it's reprehensible.

How is it that the temple matron even took notice of your rings to begin with? Do they not allow any other jewelry other than wedding rings to be worn? If this is the case, what is the reasoning?

I don't know what it's like now, I haven't been to a temple in decades. But back in 1980 the only jewelry one could wear was her own personal wedding and engagement rings. Or at least, that's what I was told then. and, since I didn't have anybody else there with me that I could ask to hold the rings for me, I just put them in my locker.

I'll never be un-mad over that.

It's like joining the "army": shake you down, demean you, take your clothes and ideally your personality & individuality...

I wouldn't leave anything I cared about or wanted to see again on a Mormon grounds. It will get destroyed if not taken outright.

If I want to see something again I leave it at another church. Seriously.

M@t