Man gets woman arrested for yelling and tampering with his boat, her mom confronts him.

Watching someone make their own bed and lay in it can be supremely satisfying, especially when they've been telling everyone else how to live their lives.

But sometimes, it can be hard to find the line between letting someone lay in a bed of their own making, and pettily enacting revenge because it feels good. This is where the outside opinions of the internet can (for once) be a tool for clarity and perspective.

In a popular post on the AITA subreddit, a man asked if he's wrong for getting a woman arrested and fined after she tampered with his boat.

He wrote:

AITA for getting someone arrested and fined over my boat?

Two weeks ago I(27m) along with two other friends did our annual week-long trip to our mutual friend Alex's cottage. For years one of our longest-running jokes was that I should bring my 46ft saltwater fishing boat to the lake. This year after looking up the lake's policies we decided to make it a reality. To make this happen we all split the costs of both the permit and the marina fees.

The first four days of fishing/boating went very well however the same couldn't be said for the fifth. The issues started over some fishing we did in the same bay as Alex's cottage. After using my fish finder we found a prime spot on the other side of it. Roughly an hour into us being there a woman(20-30s) we didn't know kayaked across the bay to us.

When she got she asked to speak to the owner of the boat. When I introduced myself to her she started going off about how the boat isn't allowed on the lake. My response to her was to point at the lake permit in the windscreen before asking her to leave and not disturb us anymore.

This made her furious and she started cussing and screaming at us. For safety reasons Alex started recording her in case she did anything stupid. This only made things worse as she started trying to pull up our fishing and anchor lines. In doing this she wound up breaking my 3,000-dollar rod.

This was when her demeanor did a 180 and she began to plead with us to not call the police. As collateral, she offered to not only replace it but pay for next year's permit. I rejected the offer and used my VHF to call for police assistance right in front of her. The result of this was her getting fined for angler harassment and arrested for felony destruction of property.

Two days after all of this happened, Alex and his parents found themselves being visited by the woman's mother. From what he told me, she started going off on them and saying we are a**holes for getting her daughter arrested. She believes we should have accepted her apologies and offers to replace it.

Looking back I am conflicted as what I did could be considered vengeful as she did legitimately offer to make amends. Am I the a**hole for getting her arrested?

Commenters revealed their thoughts on whether OP was vengeful, simply reasonable, or a little bit of both.

Willing_Second1591 wrote:

NTA. There is no reason to believe a woman harassing you to pay you back what she broke. Also, her mom is witness intimidating and I think you should call the cop on her too for giggles.

Semperfiguy1982 wrote:

NTA - Intimidation of a witness (during or after a court process has been initiated). It's not your responsibility to convince her not to break other people's s**t. We learn there are repercussion for that as elementary school kids. You're fine and if she really valued your stuff or her freedom, she would've refrained from criminal mischief in the first place. I doubt this is her first rodeo.

Quiet_Nerd_2148 wrote:

NTA. She destroyed your property. If you'd accepted her offer, there's no guarantee she'd have followed through.

ILGardenmom wrote:

NTA, I'd call the station and complain that they're harassing the family, it's a big no no in most places.

Brainjacker wrote:

You do not owe grace to someone initiating violent, destructive, and unpredictable behavior. Who cares what their mother thinks - perhaps she should have raised her daughter better (or ensured she would not harass others if she had an issue where she can’t control herself). NTA.

It's unanimously agreed that OP is NTA, and also that woman comes a family of mess.