If your watch is worth enough $$ to ask your friend to pay for it - you should have put it in your pocket! Call the girls parents, if they are unwilling to pay for it, consider this a lesson well learned. To file an insurance claim or sue is ridiculous! What kind of cheap friend are you?

NO DOUBT—THE FRIEND HAS TO PAY.
IT”S NOT YOUR FAULT OR RESPONSIBILITY.
GET WITH THE PROGRAM PEOPLE!

Here is an idea: confront the babysitter with a tape record (hidden). Get her to admit her theft. Then inform the babysitter that she has 1 week to get your cash or you are going to the police and her parents. Then file the police report and sue the babysitter and her parents (in most cases they are responsible) in small claims court for theft (in most states you can get punitive damages for theft).

For sure you need call to police!

Let’s see, the baby sitter took advantage of a trusting relationship to advance herself materially. You do the same thing, so now your friend knows that it isn’t just the kid next door who is pathetic. I would gladly pay you for half of the cost of the watch and imagine, in the long run, I got of that friendship for pennies on the dollar.

I cannot believe how incorrect our “Money and Ethics Experts” were on this one. To pass this off on an insurance company is unethical, especially when you know who the perpetrator is. I recommend they redeem themselves next issue by re-addressing this recommendation or CNN/Money Magazine should begin to look for new ethicists.

Bad advice! Filing an insurance claim will require the insured to make a police report. This could mean criminal charges against the baby-sitter and the insurance company will go after her for reimbursement. How about confronting the baby-sitter and parent(s). And next time, put the watch in your pocket rather than on the counter.

Oh good grief - Why not just send the friend a bill with your hourly rate for the time you spent “helping” in the kitchen? That should work out to a fair amount.

If you are not going to put the blaim on the babysitter, then it doesn’t belong on the friend either.

Brian from Boston: it’s ridiculous, not “rediculous”, sorry but I just see this spelled incorrectly all too much. Kudos to the others who spelled it the right way.

Here is what you do: Find the girl who stole your watch and kick her a**. Tell her to cough up the cash for your watch or else. Problem solved.

Wow. Who needs a friend like you?

It seems to me that the person really responsible for reimbursing is the babysitter (or her parents, depending on how old she is). I would team up with the friend and call the police!
Also, if the flea market the jewelry was sold at is a recurring thing, you could also consider putting up posters describing the stolen items on the off chance that the person who bought them will see the posters and return the items.

Jenna may be responsible and technically “owe” you the money but I think it would be pretty tacky to ask for it.

It’s only a watch — isn’t friendship bigger than a watch?? If it is, I’m sure you will never have good friends.

What’s wrong with these people.Have the thief arrested and send her away if she is guilty

It is unfortunate your watch was stolen in your friend’s home but to file an insurance claim or ask your friend to pay for it is rediculous. If a friend of mine asked me to pay for all or half I would probably pay them and then tell them to move on b/c we aren’t friends anymore.

This is ridiculous! The list keeps getting longer: doctors who won’t deliver babies because they are afraid of frivolous lawsuits, 50 million lawsuit because the drycleaner lost a pair of pants, friends never inviting people over again because their petty friends can sue them for insignificant things (such as a watch)… Seriously, even if the babysitter stole a Rolex worth 100k, your friend is a victim as much as you are. Do we really want to be a society ostracized because of our greediness? I think NOT.

Is it really worth all the hassle and possibly loss of a friendship over a darn watch? Get your priorities straight, sigh, and move on. Putting an insurance claim in will just increase the friend’s homeowners premium possibly get them canceled. Over a WATCH. Wow.

About your friend’s babysitter, tell Jenna you will go to the police unless the babysitter pays for the stolen watch. And do it in spite of hurting Jenna, your friend. If Jenna throws money at you to cover the loss and makes it 100% whole or even a little better than whole, take her on the offer and buy yourself a new watch.

Moral, always put back your watch once you are in someone’s house. Never leave your valuables around while in that person’s house as snything can happen.

It’s not as if the crime was committed by a random stranger; the name of the babysitter is known, right?

Place the blame where it belongs. File a suit (small claims?) against the babysitter or her parents. Or better yet call the police and insist on prosecution for felony theft; restitution to victims is often part of plea deals and the little thief will want to plea down to the lesser petty theft charge. Even if no plea deal, at least you get the satisfaction of the thief spending a few hours or days in jail. Watching a known thief get arrested and hauled off to jail is quite satisfying; I’ve been there.

I hope I don’t have any friends that would hold me responsible for someone else’s actions. If the watch is that expensive, you should be able to afford a new one. If it is not expensive, it should not be a big issue.

I have to agree with John Nashville’s post.
It is ridiculous to ask a friend to reimburse you for the actions of a babysitter. Come on people! Grow up.

Its best not to file small claims with your insurer, so unless the watch was pretty expensive (thousands of $$$), she shouldn’t even file a claim. Frequency of claims is one reason that insurers use to non-renew a policy.

Hey Don Davis, get a clue to the real world. If criminals could do what you propose, they most likely would not be stealing stuff in the first place!

This doesn’t strike anyone as ridiculous? A babysitter is not an employee - at best a babysitter would be an independent contractor. Even if the babysitter was an employee, an employer is usually not liable for an employee’s criminal acts. What kind of preemployment screening would you suggest the homeowner do?!?

Better solutions would be to keep an eye on your watch or perhaps buy watches you can afford to replace in the event of theft.

Here’s an idea: Call the police.

If you and Jenna are really true friends, you’ll be fair to her and she to you. And the fair thing is to split your loss.

If criminals were required to repair all damage they cause, as they should be, this wouldn’t even be an issue. Why should two friends have to replace jewelry that was stolen by a criminal who was caught?

If the friend had jewelry stolen also, she is probably making a claim on her insurance and already paying the deductible. Her insurance may cover your very expensive watch as well with only the one deductible.