Every gift my son got at his bounce house birthday party vanished

"The party place offered to pack his gifts into my car... but when we opened the boot, it was empty. They'd been stolen."

Nama Winston

2 min read

January 9, 2024 - 3:20PM

Parenting

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When one mum decided to outsource her son's birthday party to an activity venue, she learned that hard way that some humans are terrible people.

Her six-year-old raced to the family car after the event, expecting to see 25 gifts he'd just received from his guests - only to find they had vanished.

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"We are angry and sad"

The distraught woman wrote in an online parenting group:

"Today my son celebrated his 6th birthday at a bounce house place that only does children’s birthday parties. My son had a fantastic party with his friends. We spent almost $700 (pre-gratuity) on a 2-hour party with about 25 kids in attendance.

"Toward the end of the party, an employee of the venue asked if they could load my son’s unopened presents into our van. We showed him the van, but somehow he accidentally loaded my son’s presents into the wrong car. The car left with our gifts and my six year old was the one to discover they were missing from our van.

"It just broke my heart. It has been about half a day and no one has called to say they have his gifts. I am hopeful they will return them.

"The party place is trying to track them down but they don’t have cameras. His birthday is tomorrow, how do I handle this and give him a special happy day while he is wondering when/if he will get his presents back? Do I try to replace them? We are angry and sad with him.

"The employee at the birthday place was very apologetic and they are calling the other birthday parties asking them to check their cars."

No sign of any birthday gifts. Image: supplied

"I'd be expecting reimbursement"

Hundreds felt for "the poor birthday boy" in the comments section.

This person wrote, "Damn, poor kid. Maybe give it a couple of days and see if anybody turns up with them. If another child had a party and accidentally got the gifts, it is understandable how it might take that child's parents a minute to realize that they have a surplus of gifts."

And although the poster was lenient on "the kid" who made the mistake, readers were not.

One demanded, "How do you load them in the wrong van? Was there an identical-looking unlocked van just sitting there waiting to be loaded up?"

Another went hardcore, suggesting "The company should have details of who was present, with addresses and phone numbers. It shouldn't be too hard to track them down. It might also be worth going to the police."

But this person took things further, suggesting legal action: "How does a venue dealing with multiple children not have cameras? Especially a bounce house where injuries could occur and they could be sued?

"The venue was negligent with the gifts and should replace the value of them, plus extra as a gesture of goodwill. I'd post on r/legaladvice tbh. They should at least have liability insurance."

In a hopeful update, the mum wrote, "No one has come forward returning the gifts. A local news station will be running a story tonight. We are hopeful they will be returned. I will update you all tomorrow; thank you for your suggestions and help!"