AITA for calling the Police on my husband after I found that he was hiding my son's motorcycle?
I got my son a $7k motorcycle for his 18th birthday this past June. My son is obsessed with automobiles and loves motorcycles. In his room, he has plenty of models and posters of motorcycles of all types. His biological dad passed away when he was just twelve, now I'm married to my current husband, and he has kids of his own.
My husband has always been against my son's interest in motorcycles. This caused tension between him and my son, so I told him to stop complaining. He thinks I'm encouraging him to be reckless, distracting him from school and, by extension, his future, and spoiling him and blowing away money by spending 7k on a motorcycle.
Around two weeks ago, my son's motorcycle went missing. We opened a police report, but nothing came out of it. It just disappeared. My husband had a smirk on his face the entire time just walking around saying, 'I told you so! you just wasted your money!'. This was unbearable to hear, to be quite honest.
My mother-in-law visited a few days ago. She was talking about the other house my husband owns and mentioned seeing a motorcycle, one that's similar to the one that we lost in my husband's garage while she was cleaning it (she goes to clean that house weekly even though it's empty, my husband plans on giving it to his kids as inheritance).
I was puzzled. I asked if she was confident, but she showed me a photo she had taken of it, which confirmed that it was indeed my son's motorcycle. I rushed to call my husband and confront him about it. He admitted that he took and hid the bike in his garage as a last resort after his stepson and I kept brushing him and his thoughts off about the 7k being spent on something unnecessary that could cause issues.
I blew up at him, demanding he return it; he refused and told me he had been considering selling it and giving the money back to me so 'I could use it wisely this time.' I told him I was serious and that I'd call the police. He said, 'this is a family matter, and cops can't do sh*t about it.' I had enough. I called the cops soon as I ended the call with him.
The motorcycle was found and returned, but my husband had to be taken in since there was an open file about the bike going missing. He was let go eventually, but he was livid with me. He came home yelling about how awful what I did was and how crazy my behavior was. I refused to engage in the argument, but he told his entire family about it, and they judged me for calling the police on my husband even though I had already asked him to return it.
He said he was looking out for my son and that one day we'll realize he was right but only when it's too late. My son isn't speaking to my husband or me. I feel horrible about the whole situation and am starting to think I handled this the wrong way.
NTA. The debate about whether a motorcycle is a good gift for an 18-year-old is irrelevant. Completely. Red herring. Ignore any responses based on this.
Your husband stole an item and hid it, then allowed you to go to the police about it, smugly knowing they wouldn't turn up anything, and lied to you either overtly or by omission. When confronted, he doubled down. No remorse, no repentance.
You were right to call him out, involving the police, when he threatened to sell it against your wishes, and my recommendation would be to begin divorce proceedings because this man does not have any respect for you whatsoever. He's already proven he will commit crimes and file false police reports to get his way.
NTA girl run. Your husband is selfish, abusive, overbearing, and controlling. You need To Get away from him and his entitled behavior.
NTA: your husband committed a crime, let him deal with the consequences. Time to get out of this marriage.