My [42F] nephew [20M] is telling everyone he has asthma like my son [12M] but he is just overweight. He stole 3 of my sons inhalers and he is refusing to pay for what he took

A Reddit user shared a troubling situation with their nephew, who has been pretending to have asthma in order to avoid attention on his weight. The user’s son, who has severe asthma, discovered that his inhalers had been stolen after a family party. It was later revealed that the nephew had taken them, claiming to have asthma, but he has no such condition. Now, the user is torn about whether or not to demand compensation for the stolen and damaged inhalers, especially as this has caused tension with their sister. Read the full story below…

‘ My [42F] nephew [20M] is telling everyone he has asthma like my son [12M] but he is just overweight. He stole 3 of my sons inhalers and he is refusing to pay for what he took’

My nephew is really overweight, like extremely big. I promise I don’t mean to sound like a witch but he can’t make it up the stairs without being short of breathe. Recently 3 of my sons inhalers went missing, my son asthma is bad. He has really bad asthma attacks from time to time. My husband, children and I hosted a party the night before. So we thought maybe someone threw them out by mistake while drunk. We searched for them but to no luck.

Anyway my daughter [17F] heard from one of her cousins that Stewart has asthma. I called my sister and I asked if this was true and she said it is the first time she is hearing of it. She went into his room and she found my sons inhalers. Her son still lives at home and is not doing anything with his life. No college, no job, nothing.

You can tell they are my sons Asters because we have stickers on them. His little sister who is 7 put smiley faces on them because she believes it helps. My sister confronted him about it and he cam clean. He stole the inhaler and pretended to have asthma so people would not think he is out of shape.

I know he has no job, but those things are not cheap and honestly I am furious. I think he should pay for what he used because really 2 of them are broken. My sister does not think she should pay for them if he can’t and is asking me to cut him a break. I don’t think I should, but I don’t know what to do. This is really tearing a rift between myself and my sister. But at the same time it’s like he stole my little boys inhalers, that to my is unforgivable.. tl;dr: Nephew stole sons inhalers

Here’s what people had to say to OP:

Doughchild −  He should pay and he’s no longer allowed in your house. Your sister is right, she shouldn’t pay, HE should because he’s an adult. Gotta wonder if you have to press charges for this, but it’s going to be hard to prove i guess. Imagine if your kids attack had been worse, your nephew would’ve been responsible. Doesn’t matter if it’s cos he’s fat, maybe he’s using it for other reasons.

teresajs −  You’re not going to get the money from him. You need to stop asking. But don’t invite, or allow, your nephew into your home, any longer. He’s a thief, as well as a l**r. Don’t allow him to your home.

When_Bunnnies_Attack −  This sucks. As someone who works as a pharmacy tech, I’ve seen those inhalers go for $50 a pop even **with** insurance. And then of course, if you run out early because someone stole some, insurance doesn’t really care, they won’t cover a new one until it’s been roughly a month since the last one was covered. (They’ll sometimes do an override and pay for it if it was stolen, but this *usually* requires a police report, and then getting in touch with your insurance company, so.. )

helendestroy −  Tell her that he gives the inhalers back now or you’ll report him for stealing px meds. Also, why did your sister not take them back when she found them? That is messed up. By leaving them there and telling you there’s nothing she can do, she’s supoprting her son in this.

DRHdez −  Your nephew is an adult, his mom shouldn’t pay for something he stole. Talk to your nephew and let him now you’ll go to the cops if he doesn’t pay the inhalers back to you. Treat it the same way you would treat a non-family member adult stealing something from you.

anglerfishtacos −  You can try demanding that he pay for the inhalers, but since your sister isn’t pressing him to do so, I wouldn’t expect him to do so. As much as I don’t like the idea of letting bad behavior slide, it sounds like your sister has a lot more to deal with than the cost of the inhalers if her 20 year old unemployed son is stealing inhalers in order to poorly trick people into thinking he has asthma rather than a very serious and obvious weight problem.

If your relationship with your sister is otherwise good (which it sounds like it is if she confronted him instead of immediately defending his behavior), I’d let the cost slide, but tell her his behavior is totally unacceptable, actively put your son’s life at risk, and that he will no longer be allowed to your home.

pro_newb −  Do you have any of this in writing? If not, text your sister. Then go to the police. Stealing medication is a serious crime, and with a police report you should be able to get replacements covered by insurance.

daladoir −  Isn’t stealing medication against the law or something?

HiAiNiSi −  Is your nephew mentally competent? Considering he’s obviously morbidly obese, I don’t think anybody is buying the asthma story. It sounds like something a 6th grader would make up to impress an 8th grader.

So basically you have a big dumb man child who did a stupid thing because he’s pretty stupid. He saw that your son had so many and thought it wouldn’t be missed. Yeah, it’s absolutely s**tty. Yeah, your sister probably enables him. You’re not getting reimbursed. I’d settle for a sincere apology if you want to restore some family balance and preserve the relationship with your sister. Or, take Reddit’s advice and cut your sister off forever, call the cops and file a civil lawsuit for emotional damage.

thebabes2 −  Even with insurance rescue inhalers are expensive, they absolutely should pay the cost! Your sister needs to stop coddling her pathetic *adult* son. How sad is his life that he has to steal a child’s life saving medication because he’s embarrassed by being fat… My daughter has asthma, though thankfully in good control right now, and I’d be furious if this happened. This would honestly be enough for me to ban the son from my home and it would f**k up my relationship with my sister. This is not ok.

Edit: you said some of the inhalers are broken. I don’t know which one you are using, but can you take the medication canister out and pop it into one of the inhaler housings that isn’t broken? Also…what the hell was he doing that he broke them?? I’m so angry and it isn’t even my child!