When one teen takes another’s car without asking, most parents would be furious—unless you’re this dad, who says the kid who got his car stolen was well within his rights to take it back.

But when the thief is your stepdaughter and your wife demands an apology, things get a lot messier.

Read on for the story.

AITA for siding with my son in an argument with my wife?

I have a son “Max” (18M) with my ex and a stepdaughter “Kelly” (21F). My wife “Jamie” and I share a daughter (7F).

Since we got married eight years ago, I have put equally amounts of money for college and towards things like a car for Max and Kelly.

The amount I saved was enough for Kelly to live at home and go to a local state school. The amount I put away for a car was just enough to buy a very old used car that would run, but not much more.

Just enough is just enough.

While I have put equal money away for them both over the last 8 years, Max also has access to money from my ex and my ex’s parents. So, he got a brand new full sized SUV when he turned 16. His mom paid for it and it is in her name. She also pays the insurance.

In the fall, he will be going to college out in California (we live in the Midwest). He has also been across the world with his mom (Kelly wants to travel, but does not have the money to do so). Because of these things, there has been some jealousy from stepdaughter towards my son.

Additionally, Kelly has a set of 6 friends who she has been close to the whole 10 years I have known her.

Noted.

Early last week, I was out of town for work. Jamie, with our youngest, was visiting her sister. Kelly and Max were the only people at home.

The youngest of Kelly’s close friend group, who also recently got engaged, “Annie” turned 21 last week. A lot of them were only in town through last week because they are starting internships this week. The group wanted to get together and celebrate Annie’s birthday and engagement.

Kelly asked to use Max’s car so they could be in one vehicle for the night. Kelly said she would not be drinking and would be the DD. Max told her “no.” Max usually goes to bed around 9:30-ish. He went to bed and Kelly took his keys and took the car.

The suspense is killing me.

Around midnight, he woke up to use the bathroom and saw the car was gone. He got on the app and show the location of the car. He got his spare keys, took an Uber to the location, got in the car and drove it home.

A couple of hours later, Kelly called Max frantic. She told him the car might have been stolen. One of the other girls was on the phone with the police. Max told her, no, the car is at home. He came and got it.

She then said, “how is she supposed to get home?” He told her that was for her to figure out and hung up. (Kelly does not use rideshare because of a creepy experience a couple of years ago that has left her a bit traumatized.)

Oh boy.

Kelly called Jamie and told her about the situation. Jamie called Max and demanded he pick up Kelly.

He refused. Jamie called me and told me about the situation and told me to make Max pick her up. I told her Max is in the right and I am not going to make him pick her up.

Kelly got home but it took an hour of calling around so everyone could be picked up.

Yikes.

When my wife and I got back home a few days later, we had a family discussion about it. Jamie asked that both Kelly and Max apologize to each other.

Max refused because he did nothing wrong. Kelly got upset and said Max gets everything while she gets nothing. I told Kelly that if she feels what her mother and I have worked and sacrificed to give her is nothing, she is free to not take our money to pay tuition in the fall and she can move out at any time.

Jamie is mad at me and thinks I need to make Max apologize and I need to apologize to Kelly for what I said. I refuse. AITA?

If anyone’s owed an apology, it might not be the one who drove off.

This person says she’s lucky the police weren’t called.

This person says OP isn’t the AH, but he does need to be more clear.

This person spells it out straight.

She took his son’s car and expected sympathy, but dad wasn’t about to hand over the keys or the blame.

If you liked that story, check out this post about a group of employees who got together and why working from home was a good financial decision.