Woman tactfully responds to roommate who was stealing her gift cards in college

College roommates tend to be an individual's first experience of living away from home and being responsible. It also teaches individuals to be more mindful of their possessions and deal with shared living spaces, fostering skills in communication, compromise and respect. It allows for immense personal growth. Reddit user u/CharmingUniversity98 shared an eventful story about four roommates on the platform. The post titled, "Roommate stole from me, so her wallet 'vanished'" has gained over 23.5K upvotes on the platform and 868 comments. The individual starts the story by saying that out of the four college roommates, she had the best credit score, so she volunteered to undertake the internet and TV bills under her name to avoid a hefty deposit of $600. 

On signing up, she was offered a $300 Visa gift card as an added bonus. However, two months go by and the gift card never arrives. The poster decides to call up the company and inquire about the card. They replied that they had sent the card a "few weeks ago." Curious to find out what happened to the gift voucher, she gets to know from Visa that someone had used it to make purchases at Whataburger, Target and a liquor store. She wrote, "I'm pissed off because obviously one of my roommates has used it, but I don't know which one." A few weeks pass, and the second roommate complains that he cannot find his $200 Target gift card. His mother, who still had the gift receipt, goes to Target to investigate. Interestingly, she found out that someone had used the gift card at an outlet near the poster's house.

The two roommates are naturally frustrated with this and begin to suspect the other two. Some time goes by, only for the third roommate to lose her wallet. The third roommate had an absolute meltdown as her car key was attached to the wallet. They reflect on her reaction, saying, "We had never seen her behave like this, so we're all kinda surprised she'd be THAT upset about her wallet." Suspicions arise and the three roommates begin suspecting the fourth roommate, who was the only one who had not lost anything so far. They are unable to find the wallet that day and decide to move on. In a sudden turn of events, the individual finds the third roommate's wallet in their car's trunk. They say, "We had gone to get groceries together and I guess she just laid it in the trunk while we were unloading."

Overjoyed at finally finding the lost wallet, she opens it up to confirm that it is indeed her roommate's wallet. Shockingly, she finds out that the wallet contains both the missing gift cards from Visa and Target. She realizes that the roommate became frantic as she realized that the discovery of her purse could reveal that she was the thief. Deciding to get back at her, the individual hides it deep within the "inner lip of the trunk," ensuring that it is not easily visible. The fourth roommate had to spend almost $500 to replace everything, along with not being able to drive her car for many weeks. The OP concluded: "I moved out of the state with her wallet still in my car. Finally tossed it in trash several months later." Users on the platform loved the story and shared their thoughts in the comments section. u/Cougera said, "She's lucky you didn't file a police report for mail fraud."