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The original was posted on /r/AmItheAsshole by /u/throwra832402 on 2023-09-22 10:16:23.

Throwaway because my brother is a redditor I am 23 and male. I am the middle child of my parents, 54 male and 53 female, and I have an older sister, 25, and a younger brother, 19.

I’ve been living away from my family for 5 years with the very bare minimum of contact because right around when I turned 15, my dad’s stuff started disappearing from his room. He has a pocket knife collection filled with different knives that he has collected from across the US, and some of them are pretty decently valuable (not worth like several grand or anything but some of these probably fetch for a few hundred). He also has a collection of baseball cards and autographed baseballs. These items would vanish from his room and end up in my room and each time I got punished for it, and each time was more severe than the last. I was looked at by my entire immediate family as a thief for 3 years even though I constantly pleaded my innocence to them. I missed out on a few vacations, didn’t have a 17th birthday celebration at all, didn’t get my driver’s license or a car until after I moved out, and I didn’t have a job and had no way to save money aside from past birthdays and odd chores around my neighborhood. I remember my dad and mom telling me how much of a disappointment I was and that they wouldn’t be surprised if I ended up in the local news as a robbery suspect or worse. My extended family wasn’t much help either and saw me in the same light. It got so bad to the point where I genuinely wondered if I was actually stealing and not remembering it at all, either through some kind of mental struggle or doing it in my sleep or anything.

Earlier this week, I got a call from my mom. My dad had noticed that his things started disappearing again without me being there and finally had the bright idea to set up cameras in the hall, where my brother was caught taking stuff and putting them in my sister’s old room. Mom told me about that and then said that she and my dad both apologize to me for not believing me and that they would love to have me over for her birthday dinner to catch up. I asked her what her plan for my brother’s punishment was and she got confused. I asked her again, reminded her that I was forced to miss out on a birthday, multiple vacations, and my driver’s license at 16. She said my dad took his phone for a week and his video games for a month. I lost it on her and berated them for treating me way worse while I was being framed for being a thief while the actual thief only had his phone confiscated. I then said I will not be attending any events with them for the future and I said “you guys can go f*ck yourselves.” I hung up and blocked her number. I then got a call later from my sister who told me that “while my rage is very much justified, my mother is inconsolable and has locked herself in our parents’ bedroom.” AITA?