Every now and then, when we see a child do something naughty, we might brush it aside and think to ourselves, “kids will be kids”.
Of course, some bad behavior should not be ignored, and reprimanding the children is in order, as these naughty children must be taught a lesson.
In some cases, scolding and punishments are still insufficient, and the authorities might be necessary.
Redditor SneakySpartan01 recently caught their teenage neighbors playing with a very important item.
Unfortunately, the original poster (OP)’s words of warning were completely ignored by these rowdy teens.
When the father of one of these misbehaving youths also failed to see any wrongdoing, the OP made it clear that if this happened again, he would call the police.
A threat their neighbor found completely out of line.
Wondering if this was the case, the OP took to the subReddit “Am I The A**hole” (AITA), where they asked fellow Redditors:
“AITA for yelling at my neighbors son for playing in my spare wheelchair?”
The OP explained why they felt calling the bad behavior of their misbehaving neighbors necessitated calling the police:
“A little backstory.”
“I was born paralyzed and unable to walk and I need a wheelchair to get around.”
“I mostly use a power wheelchair, and I have a spare manual wheelchair when I can’t use my power chair, like when I go to my sister’s house or in older buildings that are very handicapped accessible, and my power chair doesn’t fit.”
“So Thanksgiving afternoon, I’m having Thanksgiving at my sister’s house and heading out the door, and I go out to my garage where I keep my manual chair, and I see my neighbor’s son and his friend playing in my wheelchair and being very rough with.”
“They were both riding on it, and they tipped over backward.”
“I was angry and yelling at them that my wheelchair wasn’t a toy and that I needed it and they just laughed and continued playing with it.”
“So several minutes go by of me trying to get them to stop playing in my wheelchair they were in their backyard that I can’t get to so I try calling their parents to try and help but they don’t answer so I have to go all the way around the block to get to the front of my neighbor’s house.”
“When I get to the front of my neighbor’s house, and I’m finally able to tell them the situation, my neighbors say it isn’t a big deal and I shouldn’t be so angry, but by this time, it’s been several minutes and I’m supposed to be at my sister’s house with food and I inform my neighbors that I need my wheelchair to go to my sister’s.”
“I finally got my manual chair, and I told my neighbor I’m going to call the police next time, and my neighbor said I was being a sensitive a**hole, but I don’t think I am.”
“Am I the a**hole?”
Fellow Redditors weighed in on where they believed the OP fell in this particular situation, by declaring:
- NTA – Not The A**hole
- YTA – You’re The A**hole
- NAH – No A**holes Here
- ESH – Everyone Sucks Here
The Reddit community was in firm agreement that the OP was not the a**hole for threatening to call the police on their teenage neighbors.
If the Reddit community thought the OP did anything wrong, it was not calling the police immediately when he saw his neighbors roughly playing with their wheelchair, as this was plain theft, and they should have called the police immediately:
“NTA.”
“You should have called the police this time though.”- Successful_Bath1200
“NTA.”
“They trespassed, and then stole your wheelchair?”
“Little sh*ts.”
“File a police report now.”- WelfordNelferd
“NTA.”
“Time to get security cameras.”- CoderJoe1
“You don’t have to call the police next time.”
“YOU HAVE TO CALL THE POLICE RIGHT NOW!”- 000-Hotaru_Tomoe
“NTA.”
“Wheelchairs are not toys.”
“And, even besides that, it didn’t belong to the kids, and they should not have been on your items, and on your property, to begin with.”
“You would have been 100% justified in calling the police on them.”
“The whole ‘you are being too sensitive’ is the usual fallback of people doing wrong when called on their behavior in order to try to turn blame round on the other person.”- bamf1701
“What the actual f*ck?”
“How did they get the chair in the first place?”
“This is so wrong!”
“NTA.”
“Call the police and see if you can still file a report and get something so the parents see how serious it is!”
“Not a joke!”- Outrageous_Grade2713
“You should have called the police on the little trespassers the minute the parents indicated they didn’t GAF what their spawn was doing in your garage.”
“I hope the garage has a lock.”
“And maybe get a security camera or two.”
“NTA, your wheelchair isn’t a toy.”- YouthNAsia63
“NTA.”
“Those parents don’t GAF, and it would seem from the comments that the kids have in fact damaged the wheelchair.”
“Who knows how many times they have abused the chair.”
“Call the police now, don’t wait for a next time.”
“From what I know, wheelchairs are not inexpensive, and if they should break the wheelchair the next time, you don’t know that those parents have the means to replace it.”
“Get a lock put on your garage to be sure, but just in case there’s a next time make sure that you’re calling the police this time.”
“Whatever repairs are needed for the wheelchair, it’s likely going to be easier to hold them responsible for repairs as opposed to replacing the chair.”
“It would be amazing if those kids could be made to pay for the repairs, as it might teach them a valuable lesson.”- ScoobaChick28
“Are you kidding?”
“NTA.”
“It is not you should not have ‘been’ so angry.”
“It is that this should not have reached the point where you even had to ‘get’ this angry.”
“Most kids when they get ‘caught’ doing something by a neighbor get the heck out of there, and it’s a nuisance.”
“I believe your neighbors’ children ignored you because you do not present a physical threat to them or did not have the physical ability to retrieve the wheelchair from them.”
“For this reason, I do not believe calling the police is escalating things unreasonably.”
“Their parents should, 100%, have intervened, like it or not.”
“I know this misses half the point, I agree with the other commenters that this was already a police matter when you noticed they were damaging your wheelchair.”
“But it’s still not what disturbs me the most.”- atmasabr
“I didn’t even need to read past the title to know you’re NTA.”
“I’m an ambulatory wheelchair user.”
“Mobility aids of any kind (canes, crutches, wheelchairs, etc.) are our limbs.”
“They’re extensions of ourselves and no one should ever touch them without permission EVER.”
“My nephew (when he was 3yo) went through a phase of switching on my power chair because he liked the noise it made.”
“I asked him not to do it, and explained ‘it’s my legs, I need it to get home, and if the battery runs out then I can’t get home’.”
“‘Switching it on will make the battery run out.'”
“He never switched it on again.”
“Although he would ask to be there when I switched it on to go home.”
“If a 3yo can understand, so can anyone else.”- trappeddungarees
The OP later returned with an update, sharing that upon discovering some damage to their wheelchair, they did end up calling the police, and things took a turn the OP never saw coming:
“I asked my neighbor to fix my chair and he laughed again.”
‘Thankfully, nothing was broken on the chair. Everything just needed to be tightened.”
“I just wanted him to be the one to do the repairs, I got them in less than 5 minutes.”
‘Also there were no scratches or anything on the chair.”
“So after being laughed at, I went back inside and called the nonemergency number for police, and they sent someone out.”
‘This is where it gets kinda crazy.”
“The son and his friend had both in trouble before and they were on probation so he was taken away by the police, not sure about the friend.”
“also, his father was arguing with the police and then tried coming over to my house while still arguing with the police, and he was threatened with arrest and also nearly pepper sprayed.”
“The father was not arrested and calmed down a little and went back inside his house.”
“I will update again if anything else happens.”
“Thank you everyone for saying I am NTA.”
If anything, the OP was extremely generous by not calling the police the minute they saw their neighbors playing recklessly with their property.
As it was every bit within their rights to call the police over a theft.
We do hope this intervention from law enforcement will see to it that OP’s mobility aid goes untouched going forward.