[lawhub]

Back in the 1990s my parents hosted a Christmas party at our house. It was all adults attending - neighbors, friends and work colleagues of my parents. I was about 9 years old and required to stay up in my room for the party. I had a small TV in my room so I could play video games or watch a movie, so I had everything I needed.

Later into the night I heard a toilet upstairs flush and someone walking around. I went out of my room to see if it was my parents thinking the party was over. I walked out into the hallway and down towards my parents' room thinking I'd see one of them. Instead I saw a man - a guest at the party that I did not know - going through my mom's dresser. I was confused and froze for a moment and wasn't understanding what was happening. All the while the man didn't know I was standing their watching him.

He took about 30 seconds of going through my mom's underwear drawer and grabbed a few pairs and shoved them inside his sport jacket interior pocket. And as he's closing the drawer he turns and sees me. And he freezes for a second and we're staring at each other. Then he takes out his wallet and gives me all the cash in his wallet. It was something like $57 dollars. And he said something like, "You're going to forget anything you saw and act like it never happened. Deal?" Then he handed me the money as I nodded my head in agreement to the terms.

I kept quite for about 10 years. Then when I was in college I told my parents about what happened. They were A) thinking WTF you didn't tell us that? And B) asking who it was that did it. I described the man as best I could and when I described his hair and mustache my dad got a pissed look on his face and my mom just said "gross.."