High schooler dumbfounded by neighbor’s refusal to pay for their broken laptop: ‘Take them to court’

A high school student is fed up with a neighbor who won’t cover the cost of a broken laptop. 

They shared what happened on Reddit’s “Am I the A******” forum. The high school student left their laptop on the porch for a minute. While they were away, the neighbor’s child broke it. But the neighbor is refusing to pay for the expense. 

“I am a high school student and live with my family,” the student wrote. “I was doing some homework on the patio table outside and I was the only one home. I went inside to refill my water bottle and came back out to see my laptop on the ground. I went home and checked on the Ring camera and saw a video of my neighbors kid running into the yard, running under the table, pushing up on the underside of the table, causing everything on it to tilt and slide to the ground, [then] running away.” 

The teen used the video as evidence to get the neighbor to pay for the broken laptop. 

“I downloaded the video to my phone and went to the neighbor’s house to ask him for money to replace the laptop,” the student said. “I decided to ask for $1700 for the laptop and $159 for the lost time that I spent doing the homework that I’d have to redo. I valued my lost time at the amount I’m paid at work since I’d likely have to skip a couple of shifts at work to redo the assignment. I went to the neighbor’s house and he said he wasn’t gonna pay because I shouldn’t have left the laptop out and anything could have happened like rain or something. Now, this might be petty but I have his Venmo. So every day, I’ve sent an $1859 request to him and he keeps declining it. I told my family and they think I shouldn’t have left out the laptop, that I was harassing [my neighbor] and [said] they will replace it for me. But I feel like they shouldn’t have to pay.” 

Redditors thought the teenager was being fair about the situation. 

“Take them to court,” one person advised.

“Your neighbor is not taking responsibility for their child’s actions,” another said. 

“You have proof that the kid trespassed and destroyed property,” someone wrote. 

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