A 16-year-old girl—whose father died five years ago—no longer felt safe living with her 16-year-old stepbrother after witnessing something unsettling in the bedroom footage she had recorded in the middle of the night.
When Redditor ThrowRA727Plm showed her biological siblings what her stepbrother had done to her, they immediately told her to pack her bags.
After her departure created division within the family, she was left with a lot of questions and sought the Relationship Advice subReddit for guidance.
The Original Poster (OP) wrote:
“Step brother came to my room at night and cut my hair with scissors. I moved out and parents want me back with him still there.”
Before going into the occurrence, she began her post by clarifying a couple of details about her family.
“Step brother of 6 months. My mom married his dad.”
“So a few weeks ago in a morning I noticed my stuff in my room had moved. I told my brother (big bio brother, 23) and he didn’t take me seriously but taught me how to record my room at nights with my phone.”
“I’ve been recording myself every night and nothing happened, so I was ready to believe that nothing had happened that night.”
“This weekend however, step brother came into my room at about 3:15am. He came to me with scissors, cut a small piece of my hair and left my room. It was so weird and shocking. It was a very small amount, something I likely wouldn’t have noticed.”
“I sent the video to my siblings (brother and bio sister, 19). They told me to pack a bag immediately and picked me up and took me with them. They sent the video to parents.”
“Parents questioned step brother and he says he doesn’t remember doing it at all and said he was likely sleep walking and asked to see a doctor. I don’t believe him and neither do my siblings.”
“Parents want to solve this problem by taking both of us to family therapy. They want me to come home and discuss this (all four of us). They say I’m not in any real danger, as he didn’t hurt me or do anything inappropriate or sexual.”
“My siblings strongly disagree and say what he did was very inappropriate and they’re not going to let me go back there as long as step brother still lives there. Parents say they will install a lock on my door so that I can lock myself in at nights.”
“Step father is upset at my siblings and claims they’ve turned this into a much larger issue than it is, he says they could have just parented the problem away by punishing and it’s not a big deal.”
“Honestly I keep hearing everyone with strong opinions about this and I don’t know who’s right or wrong. What should I do? Do I go back? Do I just never go back? My best friend says I should just go to the police and press charges against step brother.”
Strangers on the internet expressed their concerns over the unsettling incident they believed was more than just a prank.
“Makes me wonder if he has any other trophies stashed in hiding spots nobody knows about. Dollars to doughnuts this dude didn’t start with fresh cut hair.” – ArtOfOdd
“Normally I’m all for respecting a teenager’s privacy. But in this case the parents are justified and should turn this boy’s room upside down and inside out to make sure he doesn’t have other trophies and they need to see what he’s doing on line.”
“Normal porn, pot, whatever – that’s normal teen stuff and he should get a pass on it. But anything that indicates he’s stalking her or disturbing searches, rape porn, etc., need to be taken very seriously.” – MissyFirefly
“Yeah OP needs to check and make sure he didn’t take any underwear or bras of hers. If her things were in disarray he was likely looking for something.”
“I’m just so glad OP’s siblings have her back. It’s a shame her own mother doesn’t care about her safety and comfort as much as her siblings do.” – lolol69lolol
“Waiting until you were sleeping should be a pretty big indicator that he knew there would be consequences if he were caught.”
“I’m just wondering what comes next after cutting the hair off, however this evolves it won’t be good. I’d stay faaaaar away from that situation and to hell with anyone that wants to downplay it.” – bumperhumper55
“A 16 year old male who should know better than to go into his sisters room while she’s asleep is inappropriate by itself.”
“OP is entitled to privacy and shouldn’t go back to the parents if this is making her feel uncomfortable.” – kylieb209
Redditor seedypete explained why the stepbrother’s claim of “sleepwalking” doesn’t apply here and why the OP should not return to the house.
“That is not how sleepwalking works. I used to have a real problem with sleepwalking when I was younger so I researched the hell out of it and most people don’t do complex mechanical actions like retrieving scissors, sneaking into a room, and stealthily cutting someone’s hair.”
“He was awake and he did this deliberately. I don’t know why he did this, but my gut instinct for anything weird involving a 16 year old boy doing something to violate the body autonomy of a 16 year old girl is that it’s somehow sexual in nature, at least on his end.”
“You sound like you’ve got a great support system in your siblings and I’m glad you’re with them. They’ve got good heads on their shoulders, too, because this is not the sort of problem that a simple grounding will fix the way your stepfather apparently wants.”
“See, this is why you can’t go back yet. Your mom may be on board with family therapy but it sounds like your stepdad just wants this all to go away and he’ll probably try to solve the problem by grounding your stepbrother and calling it a day.”
“That’s not going to fix whatever is going on here, because it doesn’t seem like this was just a simple prank but that’s how your stepdad wants to handle it.”
“If it were just a prank he wouldn’t have taken such a small amount that you would never notice if not for the camera. That makes me think he’s got some other issue with you, and without knowing what it is I don’t think it’s safe for you to be there.”
“Especially since both parents aren’t taking it particularly seriously, which means they’re not going to have your back if something else happens.”
“Tell them that family therapy sounds like a great idea and to let you know how it turns out, because you’re not going back until he’s coming clean about what he did and why and you feel confident that your parents actually want to address it. Locking you in your room isn’t a solution.”
The general consensus among Redditors was that the stepbrother was unstable and the OP being in the comfort of her biological siblings ensured more protection than any lock on her bedroom door.