Guarding our most valuable possessions is something all of us are concerned about. There is nothing more precious than our children. We have to be quite careful in who we trust with guarding our kids.

That said, whoever we trust with our children, in our homes, has to be honorable and not steal. Some folks in Massachusetts are learning that they hired the wrong person to baby site their children. As reported in www.boston.com.

While the kids remained safe, the people’s valuables were not.

Melissa Shaktman had a good paying gig babysitting children in her neighborhood. That will never be the situation again.

The 34-year-old Shaktman pleaded guilty to stealing nearly $40,000 worth of jewelry and other valuables from two families who had hired her as a baby sitter. Topping off her bad behavior was a shoplifting charge which occurred just hours after boosting valuables from her clients’ homes.

Oh yeah, and she was also on probation at the time!

She pleaded guilty to stealing $34,000 worth of jewelry from a Manchester-by-the-Sea family and $8,000 worth of valuables from a Peabody family and sentenced to three years of probation.

She obviously did not feel guilty about her actions as she went straight from court to the mall where she was caught stealing from a store where she had applied to work.

Shaktman obviously has some issues. She needs an intense stop theft class and counseling for her addictive behavior.