Mothers-in-law and daughters-in-law have a reputation for having a hard time getting along, and that reputation isn't always justified … but as one woman recently shared on Reddit, sometimes it definitely is.
The woman explains that she recently called the police on her mother-in-law after her family heirloom earrings went missing while she was getting dressed before her wedding. The police showed up and found the earrings in her mother-in-law's bag, and now she's considering pressing charges.
The earrings are very important to the bride's family.
"I 28f got married to my husband 34m a week ago," the woman begins. "We got engaged about a year ago and when I got engaged my mother gave me a pair of earrings which she said every woman for generations in our family has worn to their weddings. They are 4.00ct dangling earrings and they are worth a lot. I felt very honoured to be given them and it made me feel closer to my grandmother who had died 2 months prior."
Her mother-in-law really, really liked them.
"About 3 months after that I went wedding dress shopping with my mother my sister and my fiancés mother," the woman continues. "I brought all the jewellery that I would be wearing to my wedding to see how they match the dresses. When I put the jewellery on my mother in law kept going on about how gorgeous the earrings were. My mother explained the story and how they were a family heirloom passed down generations. I found the dress of my dreams and bought it."
Her mother-in-law took advantage of the bride's brief absence the day of the wedding.
"On the day of my wedding i had everything ready in my room. My wedding dress, my flowers, my shoes, my makeup and my jewellery. I was in there with my soon to be mother in law. I then needed to go to the toilet and when I came back my mother in law was gone. I wasn’t sure what had happened but i just thought she maybe got called away to do something. I then noticed my earrings were gone. I knew straight away that she had taken them."
She ended up calling the police.
"I found her and confronted her and she said she didn’t take them" the woman explains. "I asked if I could look through her bag and she said no and gripped onto it. I said that if she didn’t let me look I would call the police which I then did as she still wouldn’t let me look. The police arrived and searched her and the earrings were found in her bag. They were returned to me and they asked if I wanted to press charges. I wanted to talk to my fiancé first and he said he would support me if I wanted to. I didn’t want to decide in that moment so I just ignored it and had a great night."
Now she's getting threats from her husband's family.
"That was a week ago and ever since then i’ve been getting loads of threatening messages and calls from my husbands side for the family. My mother in law has been sending me extremely hateful texts and I think I want to press charges but I’m still not sure if it’s a good idea."
People think she should press charges.
One person wrote that there are multiple charges the woman could bring against her mother-in-law. They said, "Press charges for both harassment and theft. If OP [the original poster] doesn't, the family will just keep at it. Prove that messing with your family has consequences."
It's also hard to understand why the family is supporting the mother-in-law.
Others struggle to understand why the mother-in-law's family is standing behind her. As one person put it, "It's wild that the family is backing MIL. How are they possibly justifying the theft of the bride's valuable, heirloom jewelry on her literal wedding day?"
People agree: At least she has her husband's support.
As a third person put it, there's really only one clear way forward: pressing charges. They wrote, "Press charges OP. The moment your monster in law commented on those earring spelled that she wanted them. If you didn’t call the cops when you did, she’d have likely spun a lie that they were hers, making you look worse, left with them, then wore them to taunt you at every family gathering knowing you couldn’t do anything without making yourself look bad. I’m glad your husband had your back."
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