Family heirlooms can carry a lot of emotion, no matter what they are.

What would you do if your sibling left a sentimental item to rot for years and suddenly accused you of “destroying family memories” when you repurposed it? Would you apologize for crossing the line and promise to make it right? Or would you stand by your actions and call out their hypocrisy?

In today’s story, one man finds himself in this exact situation with his brother. Here’s what happened.

AITA for Destroying my Brothers “Cherished Memories” of our grandfather?

So I’m a M(39), my brother is 37.

I’m quite the Halloween lover. I decorate my front yard every year, and I really enjoy being creative and making my own props.

Today, I was going into the garage to grab my neon green skeleton when I saw the old hand-carved merry-go-round horse my grandfather had made years ago. After he passed away, my grandma gave it to my brother, even though we both wanted it.

When his brother saw it, he went ballistic.

Well, my brother had taken it and painted over it, and it had sat on our outdoor porch for almost two years. Then, when we got our porch redone, he just tossed it out on the backyard patio in the elements for six months before finally tossing it into the garage, where it’s been for probably another four to six months.

Now, it’s neglected, broken, and cracked, and it was covered in dust and cobwebs and just looked terrible.

I decided to spray paint it all black and hit it in spots with some glow-in-the-dark green paint I had that would make for a cool effect at night. Then, I would have the skeleton ride it while holding a lantern.

Well, my brother saw it painted black and lost his freaking mind. In our front yard, he’s screaming and cussing at me that I’m destroying his property and the cherished memories of our grandfather that he had.

Now, people are torn on whether it was wrong or not.

I explain to him that the way he’s treated this horse has not been in a cherished way, and leaving it in the elements and garage for over 3 years to rot and ruin shows he really didn’t care about it all that much, and that’s why he’s overreacting for no reason.

He picks up the lantern and proceeds to punt kick it into the front of the house. He begins aggressively crying and runs into the house, where he continues to cry uncontrollably.

My mom tried to remain neutral about it. Though she admittedly sees no issue with what I did.

Thoughts among family and friends are mostly split, but I wanted to know what neutral parties thought about it.

AITA?

Eek! It’s easy to see both sides, but he probably should’ve asked first.

Let’s see what the folks over at Reddit think he should’ve done.

According to this comment, it still belonged to his brother.

Here’s a good question.

This person also thinks he was wrong for this.

Yet another reader who thinks he was wrong.

He definitely crossed the line. The item belonged to his brother fair and square, so he had no right to do this without asking.

If you liked that post, check this one about a guy who got revenge on his condo by making his own Christmas light rules.