Man's aunt steals $9k in scholarship checks from his daughter, so he puts a lien on her RV as payback: ‘"She's smart, she'll win more scholarships’"

Author image for Lana DeGaetano
Lana DeGaetano • "Show me to me please."
Jan 5, 2026 2:00 PM EST

A hard pill to swallow? A college education doesn't pay for itself. Between merit scholarships, work study, and sports grant money, you can usually find a way to cut corners a bit in terms of tuition and room and board. Not all of us have the finances to cover ourselves through college, especially when you're only 18 years old and trying to figure out which summer internship you should apply to in a few months.

Luckily, the different financial aid avenues available to most university students help them pay for what they couldn't pay for by themselves. Certain niche groups often have scholarships that are specific to them. Think women in STEM, aspiring environmentalists, and the like. Scholarships are well-earned, but any student who is in possession of a large sum of money must be careful with whom they talk about it. Someone is always pocket watching, and sometimes, it's your family.

The next story focuses on an aunt who manages to steal $9k worth of scholarship funds from her grandniece, who earned it by being a female student in STEM. It's difficult to be chosen for merit scholarships because many intelligent candidates apply for them. However, even if it were easy to do, stealing something that belongs to someone else, especially a younger individual you are related to, is a new level of low.

What did the aunt use the funds for? A vacation to Cancun, of course. What she didn't know was that soon, she'd end up losing nearly everything near and dear to her because of her rash and selfish actions. Stealing from a child is one thing, but being unapologetic about it is the nail in the coffin. If you keep reading, you'll learn that this isn't some petty thing that the aunt did. There's police involvement, divorce, and whole lot of learning one's lesson. Scroll to read.

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  • person in gray shirt and blue denim jeans holding money
    via Sasun Bughdaryan for Unsplash

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • "AITA for putting a lien on my aunt's RV after she stole my daughter's $9K in scholarship checks and spent it on a Cancun vacation?"

    I found out my aunt stole nearly ten thousand dollars from my daughter when her husband showed up at my door yesterday with bank statements and divorce papers in his hand.
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  • He didn't even say hello. Just held up a highlighted Chase statement and said "did you know about this?" The line item said "Mobile deposit - scholarship refund check" and the amount was $4,200.
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  • Then another one three weeks later for $3,100. Then smaller ones, $890, $1,770. My daughter is 16.
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  • She won the Regional STEM scholarship last spring and a second one from the state agriculture department in June.
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  • Both scholarships sent refund checks to our house because she's a minor and I'm listed as the financial contact.
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  • I never saw those checks. My aunt Linda lives two doors down from us. She has a key to our house because she waters our plants when we travel.
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  • I didn't think anything of it when she offered to grab our mail while we were at my daughter's robotics competition in May.
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  • That was apparently when she took the first check. Her husband Mike looked like he'd been crying.
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  • He sat at my kitchen table and spread out six months of credit card statements. Girls trip to Cancun with her book club, $4,300.
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  • New bedroom furniture, $2,100. Spa packages, clothes, a fucking Peloton bike. All of it in the span of 30 days.
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  • "I asked her where the money came from," he said. "She told me she won it playing online slots." I felt sick.
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  • Those scholarships were for my daughter's college fund. She worked her ass off, 4.0 GPA, volunteers at the animal shelter every weekend, builds robots in our garage until midnight.
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  • The STEM scholarship alone took her six months to apply for, three rounds of interviews, a 40- page project proposal.
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  • I called my aunt immediately. She answered on the first ring, all cheerful. "Hey sweetie, what's up?" "Where are my daughter's scholarship checks?" Silence.
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  • Then, "Oh. Mike told you." "You stole from a child." "I didn't steal anything, I borrowed it.
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  • She's smart, she'll win more scholarships. This was a one-time thing, I was going to pay it back." "You spent it in a month." "I needed a break!
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  • Do you know how stressful my life is? I deserve nice things too. Your daughter has her whole life ahead of her, she'll be fine." I hung up and called the police.
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  • Filed a report for theft and forgery because she had to have forged my signature to deposit those checks.
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  • The officer said it's a felony over $5,000. Then I called a lawyer. Turns out I can put a lien on her property for the amount stolen plus damages.
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  • They own an RV that they take camping every summer. Worth about fifteen grand. My lawyer is filing the paperwork this week.
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  • Mike filed for divorce yesterday morning. He told me he never knew about the checks, never knew where the money came from, thought his wife had a gambling problem.
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  • He's moving in with his brother and he's on my side with the criminal charges. My aunt has called me 47 times in two days.
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  • Her voicemails went from apologetic to angry to desperate. The last one said "you're going to ruin my life over some money your kid didn't even miss yet." My daughter cried when I told her.
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  • Not because of the money but because her aunt, someone she trusted, stole her future. She said "I worked so hard for those scholarships.
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  • Did she even care?" The police investigation is ongoing. The prosecutor called me this morning and said they're charging her with felony theft and forgery.
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  • a close up of a police car with its lights on
    via Ahmet Kurt For Unsplash+
  • Court date is in January. My lawyer says the lien will go through and we'll likely get a judgment that lets us force the sale of the RV if she doesn't pay restitution.
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  • My mom called me yesterday and begged me to drop the charges. "She's family. She made a mistake.
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  • Don't destroy her life over this." I told her that Linda destroyed her own life when she stole from a child and spent the money on margaritas in Mexico.
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  • But now half my family isn't speaking to me. My uncle says I'm being vindictive. My cousin posted on Facebook about forgiveness and family loyalty and I know it's directed at me.
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  • Mike is the only one who gets it. He told me yesterday "she looked me in the eye for months and lied.
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  • She stole from your kid and didn't lose a second of sleep. Let her face what she did." The RV thing is what's making everyone angry.
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  • They say it's too far, that she needs that RV, that it's her only escape. I don't care.
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  • She can escape to a courtroom and explain to a judge why she thought my daughter's education was less important than her vacation.
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