Many of us have it pretty good—we have loving, supporting families who we know will always have our backs. Unfortunately, not everyone is that fortunate. The unfortunate reality is that a person’s parents do not always have their best interests in mind. They feel that their children owe them for the rest of their lives just because they were reared by them. Read this story and let us know what would you have done in this situation?
Source: Reddit
I’m going to start this off by saying that if you have a house and don’t have cameras, get cameras! I have some now. But I should have gotten them sooner. I live in a pretty typical manufactured home in Arizona. My parents also live in one just a few streets over. Despite how close we are, I’m VLC because they are just bad people. They treated me ok as a kid. But things changed as soon as I was in my late teens. I was expected to do more and pay my way as soon as I finished high school. That was fair, I was an adult by then after all. But my parents wanted a lot more in rent than what I’d have to pay to get my own apartment. I’d have had next to nothing left of my monthly paycheck if I’d given them what they wanted. So I refused to give them more than a fair amount, plus a share in utilities. And I started buying my own food as well.
My father openly said this was not good enough, and my parents actually filed official paperwork to evict me when I refused to cater to their demands. I left home and got an apartment with my best friend. Five years later, I bought my own house in a neighborhood not far from my parents. It’s just a manufactured home on a small property. But it was so damn cheap that I couldn’t turn it down. And my monthly mortgage isn’t bad either. I even moved my best friend in to help me cover the bills. We were already used to living in the same space. And the house gave us much more room. I may even let another friend move in to get some more rent money for the mortgage because we’ve got one room that’s actually left unused right now since the house is a three bedroom.
My parents somehow didn’t like my independence from them. Did they want me to fail or something? I dunno. But the incident that caused the VLC was when they demanded I trade houses with them. Yes, you read that correctly. They actually wanted to trade. Their manufactured home is smaller and older than mine, and has one less bedroom. And their yard is smaller too. Not that either of us have any grass. It is Arizona after all. When they first saw my place, they looked pissed. After a couple more visits my father actually said it wasn’t fair that I was doing better than them. And I was rubbing my nicer house in their faces. It’s just a old manufactured home in one of the hottest states in the US! Seriously! What’s to brag about?! But I guess having something even slightly better than what my parents had irked them. And as I’ve already said, they actually demanded we trade houses because of it. My friend who lives with me literally fell onto the couch laughing when they said that. And I couldn’t help but join in. My father said it was not funny! And to give him what he wants! When I recovered my composure, I said he and my mother were not entitled to my house, or anything I own for that matter. And then told them to get out. After that we barely spoke. And then the pandemic hit. Didn’t really change my life much. I liked the peace and quiet, and my friend knows to leave me alone most of the time.
My father however got laid off. And he struggled to find another job. He ended up working in the local mart-o-walls for half a year before getting a better paying job. I did get a kick out of seeing him there when I was shopping for groceries. But as much as I hate him, I’m not gonna call him a bad employee. He actually did fine. But during that time he and my mother kept calling me and asking for money. And I know what y’all are thinking. Don’t lend them anything. They didn’t want loans. They wanted handouts. Why? Because they raised me and I owed them. I said if they didn’t want the cost of raising a kid, they shouldn’t have had one. A few weeks ago though my mother called me begging for money because their dinosaur of a window AC unit finally crapped out. I told them I was not giving them anything, and they were too cheap to replace that old AC unit for a long time. So I wasn’t gonna buy them a new one. My mother then complained about how I have two in my house, and the least I could do is give them one. I then said that maybe if she and my father weren’t always pissing away their money on beer and MJ all the time, they’d have the money to buy another AC. Then I said I wasn’t giving them one of mine or any money. End of story.
Only it wasn’t the end of the story. A few days later I came home from work to find my house had been broken into. My front door locks were drilled out, and both of my window AC units were gone. Nothing else was stolen, but they went out of their way to make a huge mess for some stupid reason. Probably to make it look like a typical robbery or something. I knew it had to have been my parents and called the police. I told the police that I heavily suspected my parents of the theft because they act entitled to my stuff, even though I’m a grown man that doesn’t live with them. I went with police to my parents house, and sure enough they had both my AC units going in their windows.
When confronted my parents, they obviously denied the theft. Then claimed they already owned the AC units. But statements from their neighbors said otherwise. But my parents still denied the theft. I’d bought both AC units used online years ago, which means I had no receipts for them. So I figured my only option was to look for witnesses in my own neighborhood. And as luck would have it, a neighbor across the street has security cameras. And the edge of one of them caught just enough to see my parents showing up in my father’s truck. My father could be seen walking with a cordless power drill in hand. And a few minutes later they came back to the truck with my AC units. Then went back in to ransack the place I’m guessing.
With this evidence in hand, police had cause to arrest my parents. At first both of them acted like they’d done nothing wrong. But I convinced the police to let me do the talking. I said they could either return the AC units to my home and clean up the mess they made, or I’d let the police arrest them both right there. They’d already stolen from me, lied to police, trespassed, vandalized my house, broke my front door locks, and there was video evidence of what they’d done. If I pressed charges, they were both going to jail for sure. My parents looked deflated, then asked for a moment to talk with each other in their bedroom. I heard a lot of shouting from both of them, and I could hear my mother yelling that my father was an idiot. And he was trying to blame me in turn. After about five minutes of that they came back out looking even more deflated and said they’ll return the AC units and stop bothering me for money if I didn’t press charges. I said they were gonna clean up the mess in my house and buy new locks for my front door as well. And then I wanted written apologies from both of them on top of it. They begrudgingly agreed and even got a police escort back to my house.
My father was forced to put the AC units back in my windows, and then left my mother to clean up the huge mess they made while he went out and bought replacement locks for my front door. He was gone about an hour and came back with a new stainless steel lock set to replace the knob and deadbolt. Then he had to help my mother finish cleaning. During this time I let the two cops just sit and watch them while drinking soda. They said it was very entertaining. After everything was cleaned up I gave my parents each a piece of paper and a pencil, then told them to write out apologies to me for what they’d done. My father looked especially pissed and said I was treating him like a child. I said he was acting like one, and never stopped treating me as a child either. This was just me holding him accountable. And I could have sent him to jail, but I felt like this was better for teaching him a lesson. He then kind of snorted and started writing. My mother wrote out a good apology. But my father was pretty half-assed and passive aggressive. But I didn’t care. It seemed to kill him a little inside to have to do it. And when he was done he left without speaking to me. My mother said she was sorry, and she’d leave me alone, then followed after him. The two cops said they thought the whole thing was hilarious, and then thanked me for giving them an excuse to take a break while on the job before leaving.
Not long after I shelled out to get some cameras for the exterior of my house. So if someone tries to break in again, I’ll get it on video. I only have two cameras, but added a couple more fake ones that look real enough just to scare people off. I haven’t heard a peep from my parents. But their next door neighbor told me they went and bought a new AC unit. Guess they had the money for one after all. Makes me wonder how high they were when they thought it was a good idea to steal from me. Maybe having lean pockets for a while will teach them. Then again, they are who they are after all.
What do you think about this situation?
