25-year-old woman sues cousin who knocked her brand new $1300 phone into a pool: 'I filed for wage garnishment'

Author image for Remy Millisky
Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Mar 5, 2026 5:00 PM EST

This woman's family is siding against her after her cousin broke her $1300 phone!

Getting that new phone every few years is an expensive endeavor. Some mobile carriers let you upgrade your phone for free every now and then, but for many users, that's too long to wait between models. They love the upgraded camera quality, extra gigabytes of space, and just the sleek appearance of a brand new iPhone. 

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  • 01
    Unhappy woman talks on phone in front of large pool.
    via Getty Images

    Unhappy woman talks on phone in front of large pool. 

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • This woman was happy with her brand new iPhone, which she shelled out $1,300 for. 

    It didn't last long, though. She showed up to the family pool party only to encounter her jokester of a cousin. 

    Every family has at least one person who likes jokes. There's also one person who will take things too far. Oftentimes, these are the same exact person. 

    Since they're family, you can't always avoid them! Instead, you try to anticipate their pranks, or keep your distance, but even that isn't always 100% foolproof, as she quickly learned…

  • 02

    Am I the j*rk for suing my cousin after he knocked my phone into the pool as a "joke"?

    I (25F) recently upgraded my phone to the latest iPhone Pro model. After taxes and AppleCare, it was about $1,300.
    via No_View1956
  • 03
    I paid for it myself and had literally just finished setting it up a week before this happened.
    via No_View1956
  • 04
    A couple months ago, we were at my grandmother's birthday party. Everyone was hanging out in her backyard around the pool.
    via No_View1956
  • 05
    I was standing near one of the patio tables, texting and taking photos of everyone. My cousin (25M) has always been big on physical humor and pranks.
    via No_View1956
  • 06
    He loves being the center of attention. I've never found him funny, especially when the joke involves embarrassing someone else.
    via No_View1956
  • 07
    At one point he came up behind me and started teasing me about being "glued to my phone." I rolled my eyes and told him to knock it off.
    via No_View1956
  • 08
    iPhone laying precariously close to water on pool edge.
    via Clément ROY

    iPhone laying precariously close to water on pool edge. 

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • 09
    He kept hovering around me, pretending like he was going to grab it. I told him very clearly to stop.
    via No_View1956
  • 10
    Instead, he slapped the phone out of my hand. It bounced once on the concrete and slid straight into the pool.
    via No_View1956
  • 11
    We fished it out immediately, but it was de_d. Completely unresponsive. Apple said there was water damage and it wasn't repairable.
    via No_View1956
  • 12
    When I confronted him, he laughed at first and said he didn't think it would actually go in.
    via No_View1956
  • 13
    Then when he realized I was serious about him paying for it, his attitude changed. He said it was an accident and that I shouldn't have been standing so close to the pool with an expensive phone.
    via No_View1956
  • 14
    I told him it cost about $1,300 to replace and that I expected him to cover it.
    via No_View1956
  • 15
    He refused. My family immediately took his side, saying I make more money than he does and that he has a girlfriend and a baby to support.
    via No_View1956
  • 16
    They said I was being petty over "a mistake." What really bothered me wasn't even just the money, it was that I told him to stop.
    via No_View1956

    Maybe it was a mistake, but it was a $1,300 mistake! You don't get to make all of your goof-ups in life for free. Some of them will cost you! Even if you don't pay in money, there are other currencies. Maybe you lose someone's trust, or you cost yourself a job. In this case, the cost was $1,300 as well as scolding by all the family members for probably forever, and the cost of the lawsuit. Yes, that's right — she sued him over this! 

  • 17
    He chose to ignore that. And instead of apologizing sincerely and offering to work something out, he acted like I was overreacting.
    via No_View1956
  • 18
    After weeks of him refusing to pay anything, I took him to small claims court. I won.
    via No_View1956
  • 19
    He still dragged his feet on paying, so I filed for wage garnishment. Now 20% of his paycheck goes toward paying me back.
    via No_View1956
  • 20

    He made his own life difficult

    My family says I've gone nuclear and that I've made his life harder over a phone.
    via No_View1956

    That won't stop the family from coddling this manchild, though. He'll keep pouting at every family event (again, he'll probably do it forever), putting the pool incident into the family history books. His cousins and siblings will be joking about this until he's 99 years old. 

  • 21
    If he had apologized and offered a payment plan, I would've worked with him. But he dug his heels in at every step.
    via No_View1956

    She certainly wasn't in the wrong here! That's a costly piece of tech to have ruined by being waterlogged. Most of us literally need our phones to do our jobs, contact friends, order food and house supplies, and more… Our phones do basically everything, and we'd be lost without them. Even a few days, or a week, without your phone will have you missing out on plans with your friends, being unable to do your work on the go, and complicating your life in every way imaginable. It's a true headache! 

  • 22
    Large outdoor pool and stone pool house.
    via Jesse Gardner

    Large outdoor pool and stone pool house.

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

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