Woman steals cousin's cat then tries to get her 'canceled' and sue her. UPDATED
This is a long one but it makes up for it with how absolutely ridiculously the situation escalated.
One woman let her cousin come over and hang out with her cat on occasion since her father was allergic and she really loved kitties. One day, she came home, and her cat was nowhere to be found. Turns out, her cousin took the cat and refused to give it back.
The entire family got involved and somehow, the woman was the bad guy. This story involves theft, home invasion, police, online harassment and a vicious court case. Good thing cats have 9 lives, but it is definitely worth the read. And the cat is safe and sound.
AITA For stealing my cat?
So I (21F) have a beautiful brown cat, Midge. She's still a baby and is 10 months old. I found her outside of my work when she was about 2 to 3 months old and immediately fell in love with her. We've had the best time together and her being my first pet since moving out makes me even happier.
My cousin Tanya(15F) visits me a lot since we live in the same city and I enjoy having her, she also really like cats, but since her father is allergic they don't have any at home.
She really loves coming over to see Midge and I'm glad to be able to provide her with Midge's presence. School recently started, and before I go back to full time student I've been having to work almost 45 hours a week to afford my lifestyle for the next couple months.
Since I was busy I let her have the responsibility of taking care of Midge. Such as feeding her, cleaning her little box, etc. It was going really well and I didn't have the chance to take her home since I was going to be at work. I gave her my spare key to lock up and scheduled an Uber to take her to her house.
When I came home 8 hours later Midge was gone. I called Tanya and she swore Midge was home when she left, but after a couple hours my brother called asking when I gave Midge to Tanya. I was confused and he sent me a screenshot of Tanya kissing Midge on her Instagram story.
I knew then she blocked me from being able to see it and was shocked she would do this to me, as well as lie. I had a spare key to their house and went right over and took Midge back when they weren't home.
When I got home Tanya called screaming at me over the phone telling me I broke into their house, and stole her property. I laughed and asked how Midge was hers. She told me since she took care of her she deserved her since I wasn't home, and she had to 'save' Midge.
Her parents, were also pretty upset, since I did go into their home without permission and told me I didn't deserve Midge from what Tanya told them. They told me they decided my uncle will take allergy medication for Midge and I needed to give her back. Of course I said no.
Tanya ended up calling my mom, lying to her that I abuse Midge. My mom called angry, telling me how I could do this to Midge and if I don't give her to Tanya and her family, she will disown me.
Tanya texted me this weekend that if I apologize she might forgive me, her parents have been texting me all weekend they'll press charges since I did go into their home, and will take Midge then.
I don't know what to do. I love Midge so much and my mom gave my aunt and uncle permission to go to my apartment and take her. I know this cause Tanya texted me this I'm assuming to scare me. I am. I'm so scared one of these days I'm going to come home and Midge is going to be gone again.
My brother and dad think I am an a**hole since I did go into their home without permission and acting out without trying to solve it maturely. So, am I the a**hole for stealing my cat?
Also, I called and left a voicemail to my landlord and giving a brief explanation to the situation. I am upset since I asked for him to change the locks and he refused. Legally he was able to since as a college student my mom's name is on the lease and he needed her permission.
Of course he called and she refused. I'm scared she's gonna come tomorrow but I do have a friend I can drop Midge off before work.
Here are some of the top comments after this initial post:
NTA. I mean, Tanya stole your cat, clearly. Then lied about it. As far as the spare key - I mean, Tanya abused her access to steal your cat. Clearly, she didn’t think that through. Luckily, you had the key, or this would have dragged out for a long time. Your family is a hot mess.
Your mom has no business giving your aunt and uncle any permission regarding your property, and their position is ridiculous. You should absolutely get some webcams if you can’t get the locks changed. Then you need to really send a really firm letter/email to your family laying out the facts and making your position clear, so that it’s documented.
Yep! It’s not breaking in when you have the key to the house, and retrieving your stolen pet is probably the best reason ever to “abuse” that privilege. Why can’t Tanya go to the shelter and adopt a cat who actually needs a loving home instead of stealing yours? NTA. Protect your kitty.
NTA. Change your locks. If they want to press charges against you for retrieving your property (in the eyes of the law, a cat is property), then they'll have to admit that your cousin stole from you in the first place. I would just block and ignore all of these people.
Get Midge microchipped, take lots of photos of her, and make sure you have vet records which show you are the owner. I agree that you also need to change your locks, and perhaps get a security system if possible. I had someone steal my cats years ago, and I only got one of them back.
Obviously this is an upsetting post and people wanted to help. The OP returned with gratitude and more information:
Hi everyone! I want to say thank you so much for your input and want to put you all at ease and let you know I set up an appointment for Midge to get micro chipped this Saturday on my day off :), I also did order a small security camera that covers my whole living room/front door.
I'm still requesting my landlord to change locks but he still has his foot down. I can't move out since where I live is pretty hard to get a place and basically everything requires credit which I do not have (getting to it)
The only negative side is Tanya has been posting pictures of Midge on Instagram claiming I stole her and I have received lots of messages from her friends and classmates from school trying to 'Cancel' and dox me. That I don't really care about.
Her parents have called giving me 'second chances' to reconsider before they press charges which I highly doubt they would do. My mom and I aren't talking and I don't want to go 'no contact' with her since I love my mom very much.
I'm sure after all of this resolves we're gonna have a mature talk about how she acted and what was wrong.I'll be sure to keep everyone updated if anything else happens.
The OP provided some more key updates in the comments:
I took a lot of peoples advice and got Midge micro chipped yesterday. As well as I had a conversation with my mom that we resolved together. My landlord still refused to change my locks. Despite all this, today this morning Midge was taken.
I called my aunt and uncle and they just laughed and told me 'Try, we can hire a good lawyer.' I called police and explained the situation, showing proof I had ownership of Midge. When we went to my relatives house, police asked for her back but of course they refused. What made me even angrier was my cousin inside the house, door open holding Midge with a sh*t eating grin.
Even though I had all this evidence my relatives slammed the door demanding a warrant. Police suggested I press charges and take it to small claims court (I am), but they couldn't do anything right there. Going home without Midge was so upsetting. I had to pull over cause I started crying.
I contacted a attorney and my cousin keeps posting photos of Midge on her Instagram. I took the situation to the family group chat in anger and good news at least: Everyone hates them now!
My grandmother wrote my uncle and his family off the will and of course they're calling me threatening me with Midge, and they'll make sure I go to jail for all this. I'm fairly confident in myself, but I would be lying if I wasn't more concerned with Midge. I just want my baby back and I've been crying all day. Screw you Tanya.
There were hundreds of comments after this update but, let's be honest, this is all we wanted to know:
Please tell me you have Midge back.
The OP responded and, though this situation was traumatic, at least we got to know:
Hi everyone! I will be honest I forgot about this post for a bit after everything. I just want to also say thank you to those specific people (you know who you are) who reached out to me to help with finances as attorneys are expensive and I am only a student. But yes I just want to say Midge is home :)
Small claims court came around and my attorney was very confident and helped me out so much. She was very helpful and knew from the start we would win. I provided the judge everything. Yes, everything you guys commented as proof I own her. Photos of her as a baby, proof I have paid for all vet bills since she was a baby, and proof I had Midge chipped.
My landlord also helped. Although a lot of people were upset with him and telling me to move out, he was remorseful that his decision had consequences. I have forgiven him as his apology came with security footage of my aunt and uncle going into my apartment and taking Midge.
We have been 'no contact' since the case, they have been silent (most likely embarrassed). To end this on a good note, I wish I could have taken a picture of Tanya's face when she handed Midge back to me. :) ty everyone for listening to my story and coming back for updates, <3
Here are the top final responses from readers who decided to 'hang in there' for the whole 'tail':
Teenager uses her spare key to enter OOP's home to steal a cat: totally fine. OOP uses her spare key to steal the cat back: breaking in and stealing property. Totally makes sense. This teenager's parents are insane. I'm glad they lost that case they were so sure of. They obviously thought they had the right to bully OOP because she's young. Glad she stood up for herself.
Not to mention that once it started going public (and not in their favor), they started making threats with the cat. OOP doesn't elaborate on the type of threat, but I imagine that they probably made the typical awful person threats: throwing the cat out, putting it to sleep, and so on.
I also love your Grandma! Glad you got your Midge back! We wish we could see a photo of Tanya when she had to give her back too.
I don’t understand the mentality of people who would steal a pet. The world is full of cats that need a good home. The shelter downstairs from where I work has new cats every day. Beautiful, beautiful cats from kittens to adult cats all needing a loving family.
WHY steal your cousin’s cat????? What drives people to do things this stupid, cruel, wrong and harmful??? OOP should also refuse to speak to her mother until that idiot woman apologizes.
Thanks to Tanya's shenanigans, her and her parents are stricken off grandma's will and they're possibly uninvited to any family functions.