Dropped Shoes Off To Cleaner 3 Months Ago And They Still Won’t Return Them. How Long Till I Can Report Them As Stolen?

Should I report my shoes stolen?

I gave a pair of reasonably expensive shoes ($250) to a guy who owns his own shoe cleaning business with the intention of them being cleaned. He had over 1500 followers on his IG page and came recommended by several people I know personally. I dropped these shoes off on October 11th with the exception that they would be done in 2 weeks at most. Today on January 3rd I am still trying to get them back. Every time I text the guy he ignores me till he’s at his day job (he works at a BBQ place as well) then sends me a video once he’s up there saying “sorry bro I’m already at work it’ll have to be when I get off” then I’ll text him when I know his jobs closed and he won’t answer me till the next day when he’s like “my bad they kept me super late and I’m already back up here. It’ll have to be another time” if he’s not at work then he uses the excuse that he’s out of town visiting his son. I previously dropped off a less expensive pair to be cleaned and got them back no issues in a week. This is the second time I used his service and I’m starting to feel like he just jacked me for my expensive Jordans. Is this something I can still take to the police as theft even though I’m the one who handed over the shoes?

I told him today that if I don’t get them by the end of the weekend I’ll publicly bash his business and let everyone know not to take their shoes to him and all he said was “I work a lot bro. I’ll get them to you when I have time” at this point it’s been 3 months and I absolutely feel like I’m being stolen from. He claims to be too tied up in his day job to get me my shoes back but he’s still active on his business page advertising his before and after pictures from cleanings and showing himself dropping off completed shoes so I don’t buy that.