Consigning and the danger inherent

Not sure why this has been on my mind lately. But here we go. 3 years ago, in my small town, a woman opened a clothing and accessories consignment shop. What a terrific idea! I love shopping, but like any shopper, I add to my closets constantly, but don't cull the items as quickly as I should. I wear nice things. Not high designer but better sportswear items. We know the fabrics are better, construction is better, am I right? Plus, I take care of my clothing. I don't put my better stuff in the dryer ( breaks down the fabric, dulls colors), so I consider mine to be nice items. I'm excited that this shop has opened and I bring in loads of clothing. We list 3 pages worth of clothing, I sign all the necessary forms and off we go! I think I'll be patient and wait for 2 months before I check in with the shop owner. So I stop by the shop and it's closed. Not for good, everything is still in the store. Hmmmm, she may have had an emergency and didn't put a note on the door. A couple of days later, I go by again and she tells me that somebody in her family had been sick or some such story. I think to myself, "seems to me you would find someone to cover for you, but this is a small town, not everyone takes their work as seriously as I do, etc". Whatever excuses I could manufacture in my head to cut this lady some slack, I thought up for her. Are your alarms bells clanging yet? Another few days go by, I stop by the store. You already know what I found, don't you? The store is empty. A neighboring shop owner tells me that she apparently cleaned all the merchandise out in the middle of the night. I spent a few weeks stopping into consignment and thrift, and let's be honest here, JUNK shops just to see if I could find any of my items. Not because I wanted them back- I did consign the clothing, after all. I parted with it, fair and square. No, I just like to figure out scenarios and put a lid on mysteries. A store full of stuff....where could she have taken it all? And the part that bothers me the most is this: there are bound to be some consigners who brought in clothing and jewelry and accessories because they had use for the money their items would bring in. I'm most bothered that the shop owner for all intents and purposes, stole from so many people. Our phone numbers were on our consignment agreements and she could have called us. Shame on her!