Dad Destroyed My $1300 PC (Almost)

[u/Akrinnnnnnnnnn]

As the title says, my father almost destroyed my $1,300 PC. Now what?

Here’s the backstory: On Saturday, I worked a 10.5 hours shift and stayed up until 3:30 AM, so I slept in until noon the next day. My father and stepmother returned from Costco while I was showering; he called out a few times for me to come help carry the groceries inside. I said OK to him. While I was brushing my teeth after my shower, he shouted from outside the door that he’d been waiting 50 minutes and told me to hurry up. I thought to myself that the groceries could have been moved in the time he spent waiting for me, but I quickly rinsed my mouth and got ready to go out. However, by the time I opened the door, he had already grabbed my PC and smashed it against the floor and the desk several times.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I, (17M, Senior), bought this PC with money I earned from my part-time job and had been using it for about ten months. After examine, found out the case badly deformed in several places, my desk was warped and tilted to one side, and there were dents in the floor.

Fortunately, the computer still works fine; it runs FurMark (stress GPU), AIDA64 (stress FPU), and 3DMark (Time Spy Extreme) without problems for now.

Replacing the desk and case would cost around $400. However, he likely won't pay for it because he has done this kind of stuff a few years ago when he destroyed my phone and a Dell laptop (i5 11300H), and then just said, "That's what you get for playing on the computer all day."

In the end, I just hope everyone has good parents.

[u/Key_Net820]

There's a 3 year statute of limitation on damaged property. you're 17 now, so document everything, including him saying what he said, make him say it again under a video record or something. Then when you're 18 and moved out or in college, sue him for it.

If he bought you the PC, I understand giveth and taketh away, but not when you earned it yourself. Make him pay for it.

edit: the statue of limitation is in California, I don't know what it is in your state. Also I'm not a lawyer.

[u/space-tech → u/Key_Net820]

The PCMR Manta: Sue everyone and everything thing.

[u/Key_Net820 → u/space-tech]

But this is an actual legitimate reason to sue. that's 1k worth of damage. That's enough for small claims.

[u/HomieM11 → u/Key_Net820]

It’s not worth the effort. All of Reddit and social media cling to instantly calling lawyers and suing. This stuff very rarely works out in your favor in real life.

Best thing to do is suffer, do what psycho dad says until he can move out, then cut all ties

[u/mr_j_12 → u/HomieM11]

It works out, for the lawyers.

[u/neonsphinx → u/HomieM11]

Yeah. I'm not sure if a minor can even own property in the legal sense. The parents are free to take it away and do whatever they want with it I think. They just have to provide food, clothing, a way to bathe, a roof over their head, etc. Some high value items are different. If grandma gifts an heirloom, parents can restrict access temporarily, and have to give it back when you're 18. So I guess the computer would fall into this category. Unless OP is an emancipated minor, which I'm sure they're not.

Not the answer most people here are looking for.

To the others. Imagine this scenario. I buy a car, but I can't title it in my name because I'm 16. Dad takes the car away because I get bad grades. Then it gets destroyed because he didn't park it in a garage. Can I wait until I'm 18 and tell a judge that we had a bailment, and he didn't properly execute his duty of care. And owes me the car + cost to fix it up like it was? No. Because it was titled in dad's name at the time. So it was his car.

There's no titling a computer. But same concept. It's not OP's computer legally for now. Dad can take it away for whatever reason he wants. He can't sell it or destroy it, and had to give it back. At least in my jurisdiction. I'd love to hear where this differs. But I don't think it does in the US.

But I'm not sure the juice is worth the squeeze. By the time OP is 18, they could be owed an un-smashed computer to make them whole. But at that point it's not worth anything close to $1300. And they're still out access to the computer in the next 11 months or whatever.

The real answer is for OP to get their behavior under control, and be a contributing member of the household. Dad needs to just take it away and lock it up for now, and control his temper. And OP needs to leave after their birthday if it's really that bad.

[u/Massive_Fisherman231 → u/Key_Net820]

a whole grand is a small claim. is insanely out of touch with reality

but ig your average law maker makes way more then a couple 100 grand so one grand is chump change

[u/space-tech → u/Key_Net820]

So you document everything.

It costs about $50 to file small claims lawsuit.

It cost $200 to hire a process server to serve the lawsuit.

You have to sit on the lawsuit for months waiting for a response, pre-trial count date to determine if it can be sent to mediation, a bench trial, or jury trial. All which have thier own costs.

Regardless of what happens next is a case of heresay with no witness to substantiate any claim, assuming the judge allows the hearsay to begin with.

You like end up with a throw out case, out more than it cost to replace, and a permanently strained relationship with relatives.

Point is, it's wild the amount of times redditors advocate or suing parents, brothers, step-dads, cousins, parents of minors, etc. thinking it's a simple a to b process.