Is NOBODY wrong in the post ? POST : Little bit of backstory: I really enjoy Pokémon and play competitively in tournaments and open a shit ton of packs. Doing this means I have a very large collection of valuable cards. I still love at my parents house (I’m 18), and I keep them all on a shelf in my room. My nephew is 8, almost 9 and he and my niece is living with us because my sister abandoned them for some druggie on the streets. 

Anyway, a few days ago I got home from work and was wanting to edit one of the decks I had built for the tournament later in the day. I go to pick up a few deck boxes and a binder and found that one of my binders, and 3 of 9 deck boxes were missing. I immediately freak out because I have them all very organized and well-kept. My nephew has **a lot** of behavioral issues and gets in a lot of trouble both at home and school. He also isn’t ever really disciplined because it would make the situation worse(you’d understand if you met him and my family). So I go into his room to look for them. Lo and behold, there they are, scattered all over the floor, most of them taken out of sleeves, some bent, some of them was thrown in his backpack—oh and my binder was completely empty. At this point I was *beyond* furious and all I could mutter was “ Oh my God” over and over. 

After I pick everything up that I could find, I go upstairs and casually bring him back down to his room and then start screaming at him, and demanding him to find the rest of them. He kept saying he didn’t do it and he didn’t steal them, that they were in his room when he woke up and he thought they were his (keep in mind he lies about *everything*). So I get even madder if that’s possible and I smack the shit out of his leg. Then he starts screaming bloody murder and my nstep dad comes down and demands to know what’s going on. I couldn’t even get a word out before the child went up to him and said I was trying to kill him. My nstep dad coddles him and then gets in my face and threatens to beat me to death if I ever lay another finger on him. 

After they question him for about an hour, he finally admits that he took them to school and was trading and giving them away with his classmates. His punishment: a stern warning and no tv for the night (which he screamed and cried over). He also said he hates me and wished I would just move out and die. My parents then berated me for a while and essentially told me that I’m a child abuser and if I did that again they would have to call the police and have me charged with assault (mostly my nstep dad saying this, my mom understood what I did and didn’t make it a big deal). All in all I recovered most of the cards losing about 20 out of 250, but with all of the damage that was done to some of the cards I probably lost about $180 of cards. 

So am I the asshole in this situation? Was I overreacting by disciplining him because my parents don’t? I get that it’s not my place to do that, but I completely think that it was deserved and I honestly feel that I should’ve smacked him again. He goes back to school today and I have already contacted his teacher and explained the situation; thankfully, she’s going to confiscate every Pokémon card she finds and let me come in after hours to find which ones are mine. Sorry for the lengthy post but I needed to vent my frustrations. AITA? 

TLDR: nephew went in my room and stole approximately 250 valuable cards while I was working; I get home and find out and I smack the shit out of him. Then I’m threatened to be killed/ be turned into the police for assault the next time I put my hands on him. 