Family heirlooms are items that are passed down through generations and they have immense sentimental value. It connects you with people in your family that are no longer alive or who you didn’t even have the chance to meet. Not only are they sentimentally valuable, but they usually have a decent monetary value as old things of good quality are expensive.
This woman on Reddit received her family heirloom before her wedding and it was a pair of earrings given to women in each generation. She loved them, but the bride wasn’t the only one. Her mother-in-law took a particular interest in them and thought she could just take them and now is facing the possibility of charges.
More info: Reddit
Bride's earrings go missing on her wedding day and she knows exactly who took them but fails to retrieve them and needs to call the police
Image credits: Highway Patrol Images (not the actual photo)
The Original Poster (OP) got engaged a year ago and then her mom gave her a pair of earrings that were passed down to women in every generation. They were a luxurious pair of earrings with 4-carat diamonds in them. One diamond of such size can cost anywhere from about $28,000 to $160,000 depending on shape, color, cut, and clarity.
The earrings meant a lot not only because they cost a little fortune, but also because they once belonged to the OP’s grandmother and she sadly had passed away a couple of months earlier, so it was a little piece of her that the woman could carry with herself.
The woman got engaged a year ago and received a pair of diamond earrings that are her family's heirloom
Image credits: Material_Kiwi1561
The OP was planning on wearing these earrings on her wedding day so when she went dress shopping, she wanted to make sure the dress matched them. The woman took her mom, sister and MIL to come with her and help her choose. That is when her MIL saw the earrings and was mesmerized by them.
When these earrings went missing a week ago on the day of the wedding, the OP immediately knew that it was her MIL who took them. The bride confronted her but she pretended not to know anything. What was even more suspicious was when she was asked to show her purse, she refused.
She planned on wearing them at her wedding and even chose a dress to match them, impressing her mother-in-law
Image credits: Material_Kiwi1561
They weren’t just a pair of earrings that you can buy anywhere and they were of high value. As Reclaimed Leather puts it, “Heirlooms represent family history, wealth, and treasured memories. They’re more than objects, serving as symbols for stories that deserve to be recounted and preserved indefinitely. <...> A family heirloom connects you to the struggles and successes of your loved ones, and because of that, they’re irreplaceable.”
Because of that, the bride decided to call the police. Surprise surprise, they found the earrings in MIL’s purse, so the bride had the right to press charges, but it was her mother-in-law, after all, her now husband’s mom, so she wanted to consult with him first.
A week has passed and even though her husband will support any decision the OP takes, she was hesitant to take action. Her husband’s family are sending her threats and her MIL is also very angry with her.
When Bored Panda contacted the OP, she told us that when the police found the earrings in MIL's purse, she wouldn't admit that she took them. The mother-in-law hasn't apologised since then and the woman guesses that she stole the earrings because she wanted her to have a meltdown as the two of them never got along in the first place.
Her mother-in-law was so mesmerized by the earrings that when they went missing on her wedding day, the bride knew it was she who took them
Image credits: Material_Kiwi1561
Most often women already have a hard time getting along with mothers-in-law. Madeleine A. Fugère, Ph.D. who is a professor of Social Psychology at Eastern Connecticut State University states that it most often happens because the mother-in-law wouldn’t have chosen the woman their sons have based on the traits they value.
Mother-in-laws may be intimidated by their beauty, feel competition over the man’s attention or unconsciously discourage long-term relationships as looking from an evolutionary perspective, short-term relationships benefit men more.
So imagine that on top of that, the son doesn’t have that good of a relationship with his mother and the mother-in-law steals a very valuable piece of jewelry from the daughter-in-law.
After the mother-in-law refused to show her purse, the bride called the police and they found the earrings inside of it
Image credits: Material_Kiwi1561
Now the woman is hesitant to press charges as she got a lot of threats and angry messages both from her MIL and her family
Image credits: Scoro (not the actual photo)
People in the comments were encouraging the OP to do it as if it happened once, it will happen again. They found it especially evil that the mother-in-law waited for the wedding day to take them as she most probably realized that it would have upset the bride. Redditors also advised the OP to report the harassment as well to add to the case.
The woman noticed all the comments and told us that their observations opened up her eyes. The OP decided to listen to their suggestions as it was already what she was thinking to do, "I’ve decided to press charges so I’m just building a case towards my mother in law."
Why do you think the OP’s mother-in-law stole the earrings? Do you think that the woman should press charges? Let us know your reactions and observations in the comments.
Commenters believe that there is nothing to think about and she should definitely press charges to prevent it from happening again
