Annoyance Part II

So,  I heard back from my neighbors wife.  She e-mailed me knowing I was out of town.  She said in her first e-mail to me that she did not take the missing liquor. I responded back OK, maybe I misplaced it (but she knows how small my house is, there are not that many places to misplace things) or it could be in one other spot and I'd check when I got back home. Which could very well be the case. I could have put the bottle in one other spot and forgot about it. 

I get a second e-mail this AM that says her husband had a buddy over while I was away who likes whiskey, so maybe they took the bottles and forgot.  MAYBE TOOK THE BOTTLES AND FORGOT!   I have a couple problems with this.

It's one thing to use my spare key and go in to my  house to water the plants, it's one thing to leave a note and say, hey we ran out of booze late Friday night and borrowed your bottle of Tequila.   It's a totally dammed other thing to let an almost complete stranger into my house and take my good whiskey and the gin. 

Neighbors husband has this friend who keeps falling in and out of AA.  Last time I spoke to him (which was around the holidays), he was going to go clean and sober because he became a first time grandfather and wanted to become part of his family again.  His drinking had become so bad he lost his license to a DUI and was only allowed to drive his truck to work and back from work, and not on the weekends.  He had become detached from his family.  He likes to hang out with my neighbors husband, they do similar work, etc. And just so you know, I don't like the man, not only is he drunk each time he comes over to the neighbors house, he is also just an unpleasant person. Neighbors wife does not like husband's friend all that much either. 

I can see this whole scene.  Neighbors husband and friend are hanging out drinking their livers into cirrhosis.  Neighbors wife is working the late shift as she does do for her job so she is not home.   Neighbors husband and friend run out of their beverage of choice.  My neighbors don't have a liquor cabinet per se, they buy liquor and they drink it.  Neighbors husband knows I have a selection of liquor. Neighbor husband volunteers to get a bottle from my cupboard and is so drunk, he does not remember it the next day or now two weeks later.   I have no idea if this is the case, but people I can just see this happening knowing my neighbor's husband and his sense of generosity using my liquor.  Neighbors husband is actually a nice guy, probably did not have any money and liberated my whiskey from my house to give to his scummy friend.  

Folks, I can't make this up, I sure hope I'm wrong and I'l find the bottle in the only other place it could be (and truthfully, that would be under the kitchen sink).  My neighbors are having some personal issues and the husband is dealing with them by drinking far too much far too many days during the week, the wife by staying with her sister a couple nights a week. 

I guess the only solution to this is to take back my key that I have with them and when I go away, hide all my liquor or put a lock on the one piece of furniture that I can convert to a liquor cabinet.   I think what I will do is get that lock and do a re-arranging of my special bottles of liquor anyway and move on from this situation.