Divvying up property after a divorce is hard enough with legal council, let alone when you’re left to your own devices.

What would you do if your kids brought things from your house to your ex’s house, but your ex refused to let them bring these things back to your house?

Would you let her keep your stuff or force her to give it back?

One guy was in this exact situation. Here’s how he handled it.

AITA for reporting my ex and her husband to the police for stealing my property?

My ex-wife (39f) and I (41m) share custody of our three children (16, 14 and 12) equally and no child support is paid.

Our marriage didn’t end on the best of terms and we communicate through an app only when required to for the sake of the kids.

She has since remarried and has a 15 year old stepchild and a 13 year old stepchild.

Her husband and I do not speak also.

Sounds like a pressure cooker situation.

We’ve had some issues with my ex keeping property that is mine if the kids have it on her time.

It started with a cell phone.

I gave our eldest my old phone when one of ex’s stepkids broke his phone.

My ex then told our oldest they were keeping it at her house and she refused to return it even when I went over there and asked.

Doesn’t seem like the mother is making this situation easy.

I was told she had every right to confiscate it.

I followed up with an email and she told me to get over it and she would not hand it over.

The next time our daughter (14) brought some of my tools into school with her for an assignment but it was a custody exchange day so she left my house but went home to her mom’s.

Probably an honest mistake, but still annoying.

My ex believed it wasn’t appropriate for her to have them so she took them and refused to return them to me.

Again I got a written exchange as proof.

This last time was with our youngest.

No kid is spared here, sheesh.

I let him use an old iPod for a class assignment on recent old tech gadgets.

Apparently her 13 year old stepchild had the same assignment on a different day and she decided both should get to use it.

I told her it was my property and she had to return it, got another email exchange and then I contacted the police.

My ex gave the stuff back but she lost her mind over me getting the police involved for petty stuff.

She thought he could’ve gone about it another way.

She said I could have demanded it back after her stepkid used the iPod.

And I told her she wasn’t giving any of it back and what I give for my kids is not for her stepkids.

She brought up how more serious trouble could have come from it.

And I told her it would be deserved because you cannot steal someone else’s property.

She told me it was just my spiteful side emerging because none of it was a big deal or I never would have given them to my kids, which I think is the dumbest argument.

Her argument isn’t holding water.

The phone was because her stepkids broke our eldest’s phone and she wasn’t about to replace it, our daughter needed tools for school and it was only for school and she wanted to return them to me but her mom said no and then the iPod was just for our youngest.

I’m not here to help her stepkids in any way.

My ex and her husband and their mom if she’s still in the picture can do that. AITA?

There’s certainly more than just a little bit of trouble in this former paradise. Let’s see how Reddit felt about it.

Everyone was on the original poster’s side.

Some commenters could unfortunately relate.

One person offered resources.

And others pointed out the lesson in all of it.

These are some pretty backwards family values.

If you thought that was an interesting story, check out what happened when a family gave their in-laws a free place to stay in exchange for babysitting, but things changed when they don’t hold up their end of the bargain.