Her niece ruined her expensive coat and wants to sue her for damages, but she’s wondering if that’s the right thing to do when family is involved. This is the full story.
An Expensive Gift
The Original Poster (OP) is a 28-year-old woman who married her 34-year-old husband two years ago. He comes from a very wealthy family.
Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, OP and her husband were married for more than a year before they were able to spend Christmas with his family. That first Christmas together, OP’s mother-in-law gave her an expensive coat as a gift.
OP was thrilled because she had admired an identical coat that her mother-in-law was wearing when they saw each other earlier in the marriage.
She Found Out Just How Expensive
Even though OP loved the coat and knew it had a high price tag, she didn’t know how expensive it was until she visited her sister. She wore the coat to that visit, and her 16-year-old niece looked it up online.
OP and everyone else in the room were shocked to find out that the coat cost $20K.
After that, OP hardly ever wore the coat because she was afraid something would happen to it. She couldn’t face her mother-in-law if she ruined such a fantastic gift.
The Coat Had Been Ruined
But she decided to wear it when she went to see her sister the next fall. After they were done visiting, OP put the coat on to leave. As she was walking out the door, she felt something hit her in the back.
OP turned around to find her niece laughing hard. She had thrown a balloon filled with paint at her aunt, covering the back of the fancy jacket with paint.
OP’s sister screamed at her daughter and told her she was grounded, but the girl didn’t seem sorry for what she did at all. OP’s sister promised she’d pay for the dry cleaning bill.
She Posted the Video on the Internet
Traumatized by the incident, OP was still sitting in her car when she got a notification on her phone that her niece had posted a new video. She had told her followers that she was going to ruin her aunt’s $20K coat, and then she did just that.
The next day, OP found out that the coat could not be dry cleaned and that it really was ruined.
Right away, OP called her sister and told her that her daughter had to pay for the coat, but her sister said it was never going to happen. The two women got into an argument, and her sister told her she should have her rich husband buy a new coat for her.
Get Your Husband to Pay!
OP said that her sister’s family can afford to pay for the coat, and she expects them to do so. She suggested they sell the daughter’s car to cover the costs.
But her sister still refuses to pay up, so OP told her she was going to sue. She also said she has an ironclad case since she has the video of the daughter planning the act beforehand.
Most Redditors support OP’s position, saying that her niece was way out of line, and so was her mother. They think OP should be able to collect money from them for a replacement coat.
Go Ahead and Sue
Other commenters agree that the niece was totally wrong but point out some complications with the situation. For starters, it’s going to be tough for the niece to pay back that much money.
And, in many states, damage of that degree constitutes a criminal offense. These commenters urge OP to consider whether she wants the niece to have a record.
So, what do you think of this story? Is OP justified in asking her niece and sister to cover the cost of the coat?
And, if so, should she go ahead with her plan to sue? Or should she just drop the matter and explain what happened to her mother-in-law?
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The post In an Attempt to Make a Viral Video, Her Niece Ruined Her Obscenely Expensive Coat. Now She Wants to Sue Her for Damages first appeared on Wealthy Living
Featured Image Credit: Shutterstock / Mix and Match Studio. The people shown in the images are for illustrative purposes only, not the actual people featured in the story.
Source: Reddit