You know that coworker you come home and complain about all the time?

I haven’t had one in a while, thank goodness, but even my bad ones haven’t been as bad as the one in this story.

AITA for Going to HR after my coworker stole my cane?

Before we get into the big issue, I want to get into an incident that happened at work before this. It occurred on Father’s Day.

That date will have some weird relevance, as you’ll see.

Offending Coworker, we’ll call him D, was having a conversation with another coworker, with occasional butting in from other coworkers.

I spoke up at one point and joked that he’d been talking for so long, that he should take a breath so he doesn’t pass out.

His immediate reaction was to tell me that the conversation was between “Real men, fathers, not me.”

Look all due respect to the good parents out there, you can literally become a father by accident – that in and of itself isn’t some grand accomplishment of masculinity.

I didn’t report it (I know, stupid) but I thought I could just make the move of no longer engaging with him and going about my job.

This changed a few days ago.

Now comes the bit about the cane.

Due to a past injury, my ankle will flair up with pain occasionally when standing that I alleviate by using a cane.

I keep it in the same spot every day so that I know where it is and don’t forget it when I leave after a particularly hard day at work.

I was in the back of the kitchen during a slow day. I come back to the front to find D using my cane, pretending to limp in a mockery of me to my other coworkers.

Ok, well, that’s over all the lines.

I took it out of his hands, told him to not touch my stuff, and have since approached HR.

Certain people above me have been made aware and have told me that I have completely overreacted or am looking to cause problems to get D fired.

Did I overreact? Am I the [jerk]?

Here’s what the comments had to say:

The consensus was pretty clear.

It’s very much your space.

Like, who does that?

If anything I’d say this dude is looking for an excuse to get HIMSELF fired.

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.