'AITA for wanting my sister to pay me back because my nephew lost my electric scooter?'
"AITA for wanting my sister to pay me back because my nephew lost my electric scooter?"
Last year I bought an EMOVE Cruiser electric scooter which I’ve since modified to add more speed, a new handlebar and some other mods. The scooter itself was not cheap, at $1500, plus mods puts it over $2000.
I have a sister (43f) and a nephew (13m) who I always let housesit for me while I’m out of town on business. I have pets and plants that I need taken care of and they always welcome a change of scenery.
So I had to go on a business trip last month for a week and let them house sit. My nephew has always asked me about my scooter and I told him that it isn’t for kids because it’s extremely fast and I’ve expressly forbidden him from riding it multiple times. His mother knows about this as well.
Well, I come back from my trip and my sister tells me that I’m going to be mad, but my nephew took my scooter out, left it unattended and had it stolen. I was f*cking p*&^ed and asked them to leave.
I told them they’d have to replace it and my sister pleaded with me, they couldn’t afford it, it was a mistake and that he could do just do chores around my house to pay me back. I told her that it doesn’t replace my scooter. She said that any money would have to come from their vacation fund. I said, tough sh*t.
Our parents have gotten involved and said that I’m taking it too far. They agree that my nephew should be punished and I should be paid back, but to take away their family vacation is just cruel and petty.
They suggested a payment plan. I told them, hell no, that I use my scooter to commute to work often and that I wanted it back immediately. Furthermore, he was warned not to ride it since it’s dangerous.
Now that I’ve started to calm down here a little, I wonder if I’m being an Ahole here by being so demanding and potentially punishing everyone else for my nephew’s mistake.
Here are the top comments from readers:
NTA. Your sister should pay you. Your parents can pay money into your sister's vacation budget. Your sister can make payments back to your parents. Solved.
NTA. Repaying you comes before a vacation. You need it to commute to work. Their neglect caused it to be stolen so they need to face the consequences, especially since it was expressly forbidden that he ride it.
I highly doubt it was neglect. I think it was theft. He took it out and left it unattended? Like how does that make sense? He took it out to his little friends. If he just wanted to ride it like he said, then thats what he would have done.
Instead he rode it some where and left it? Where did he go? The park? An office? A movie? People bring bikes into stores all the time. Protecting or locking up your vehicle is as commonsense as locking your door. Does he have a habit of leaving your door unlocked when he's house sitting? It doesn't make any sense.
If it was his then maybe he forgot because hes used to it, but no, its a special occasion. Bullsh*t. I promise you he knows who has it. This is just like the story about the boy who saw his uncles toy collections, googled there prices and stole them to sell them. This isn't an innocent mistake.
NTA. She is responsible for her child when he breaks or lose's someone else's property. His consequence is they don't get as big a vacation this year. That's actually a good punishment for him.
'She said that any money would have to come from their vacation fund.' If replacing the scooter meant they'd have to use money reserved for basic necessities (rent or mortgage/food/utilities), then I'd say you may want to reconsider the payment plan option. But if they're upset because they can't take a vacation this year because of this, then tough sh*t. NTA.
Later OP came back with these edits:
To clear a few things up: People are taking offense to the verbiage "let" in my OP. Okay, let me explain, my sister and nephew view housesitting as a mini-vacation. I've offered money every time to them do the job, but they refuse, so I give them free run of the house and money for meals.
I had insurance on it, but they won't do anything without a police report. My sister did not file one, she didn't think the police would accept the report because it wasn't a car or some nonsense like that.
And no, I won't be filling a report with the police over my nephew. Listen I'm furious at him and my sister, but I'm not going to get him into legal trouble over this. He needs to be taught a harsh lesson, but jail time and a record isn't one of them. At least, not in this instance.
That being said I'm going to take some time, and think of an appropriate and harsh punishment for my nephew. I'll probably ending up accepting the payment plan, but insist on interest. It's not about the money, it's about the principle. That should be all for now, thanks.