Teen Punished by Night in Police Cell for Taking Stepsister's Car Cheered

The internet has backed a woman who called the police on her stepson after he stole her daughter's car to go to the movies and removed all of her belongings from inside it.

The mother shared the incident in a Reddit post, under the username u/Leap-Window5345, where she wrote that she recently bought her 17-year-old daughter a car.

Ever since, her stepson "has gone crazy about it," the Redditor wrote, trying to drive it, even though her daughter made it clear she doesn't want him to.

Living with a stepfamily is becoming widespread practice in the country. Data from the U.S. Census Bureau shows that there are 2.4 million stepchildren in the country.

Forty percent of families in the U.S. are blended with at least one partner having children from a previous relationship. Moreover, it is estimated that 1,300 new stepfamilies are formed each day.

According to the post, the woman's daughter called her at work crying, saying her stepbrother had taken her car after she denied him permission to use it.

The mom tried calling her 19-year-old stepson, who didn't pick up the phone, and then her husband, who said the teen "was just taking it to go to the movies with his friends and will bring it back at 9 pm."

When the mom had enough, she called the police and reported the car stolen, and after officers had retrieved the car from the stepson, all of her daughter's pink toys and decorations were gone.

Data from the FBI shows that motor-vehicle thefts rose by 11.8 percent in 2020, with 727,921 motor-vehicle theft offense counts throughout the year. The report also shows there were 67,095 arrests for motor vehicle theft, and most of them were males between the ages of 25 and 29.

The woman's stepson had to spend the night at the police station before the issue was cleared, and her husband was furious about this.

"They both [husband and stepson] came home the next day and a huge argument ensued with my husband saying I made a mistake reporting the car missing and said that I escalated this situation and that I was the one who created it and should've got his son a similar car or at least told my daughter to share; otherwise we wouldn't be dealing with his son's temper tantrums."

The post, which was first shared Wednesday on the r/AmItheA**hole subreddit, has been upvoted 8,300 times and received 1,500 comments, with most users backing the mom.

The top comment by Kitty_murmurer, with more than 13,400 upvotes, read: "This is, weird. For the simple act of reporting the car stolen, when it was in fact stolen, [NotTheA**hole].

"For marrying and subjecting yourself and more importantly your daughter to the environment created by your husband and stepson, [YouareTheA**hole]. Get a divorce and get them as far away from your daughter as possible."

Another Redditor emmaheaven1 wrote: "Husband is basically telling OP to do for my son what I didn't do and if you don't he is allowed to steal and I will gaslight you when you don't. Both husband and stepson are entitled ahs [a**holes].

"And the audacity of husband to say he is just at the movies he will bring it back. I would have [gone] straight off if he was ridiculous enough to think that this is an answer.

"Girl let them go because stepson is only going to get worse and husband will enable his future felon," wrote emmaheaven1.

Bleugirl12 commented:: "You deserve way better. Remember you are modeling how you want your daughter to be treated in her relationships. Be strong."

And StonewallBrigade21 wrote: "[NotTheA**hole] - The little brat did steal the car and [needed] to learn a lesson. By the sound of how his father is it seems he was brought up to be a brat so I doubt he'll change any time soon.

"[WhatTheF***]? It's your fault and you're supposed to buy his bratty son a car? And he said this right after the son stole the car you bought your daughter? I can't help but think your husband and stepson are always this insufferable and this is not an isolated incident."

Newsweek reached out to u/Leap-Window5345 for comment. We could not verify the details of the case.