Frat boys entered my room while I was gone, took my fan and threw it off by balcony. Broken in several pieces on the ground in the pouring rain when I got back. legaladvice

Hi Reddit,

It's Mardi Gras here in New Orleans, and it started raining during the parade so I came back to campus. I came to find my fan (purchased from Bed Bath and Beyond) on the ground, thrown off my balcony in several pieces.

I also came back to my room to find a bottle of beer missing from my refrigerator, although I am 18 years old (giving as much info as possible.), and the previous day I actually found four bottles missing, which I have reason to believe was the same person.

When I got back here, four separate people told me "yeah, we saw James and Tyler do that, they went into your room and took the fan and said they were going to throw it off the balcony, and then they did" (names changed).

I found these two kids, who are pledging a fraternity right now, walking through the hallway in my dorm shortly after. I was completely sober at this point, I didn't even drink that much, but they were still drinking (red solo cup full of Soco, red solo cups and alcohol are both prohibited from our dorms). I said oh hey guys, what's going on. My fan was on the ground outside and I was told that you are responsible.

'James' laughed and went heyy and tried to keep walking, so I grabbed his shoulder and pulled him back, and said "James, what happened here?" with a straight face. He tried to act really uninhibited and drunk and say he doesn't know what's happening.

He went on for 5 minutes back and forth with me pretending to be like "the fan? you can't find it? oh, you found it on the ground? so you have it now? so thats good! wait, but it was on the ground? wait so you don't have the fan? wait so how is this my fault? oh you found it. where? the ground? so then you have it" etc.

He offered me a sip of his drink or to finish it, clearly in attempt to distract me, and he said "sorry, this is such a shitty situation, I'm not trying to fuck you over, I just want to make it right. do you want some beer or what?"

I told him no thanks, and I said I'll talk to him tomorrow, and they walked away and I went into my room to contact my RA, parents, and now reddit. My RA will be doing whatever he can, but I want to make sure that not only do these kids receive disciplinary action, but also that I am compensated for damages (I believe adding up to close to $200 +/-).

Obviously you guys are going to know more than law about me, so please don't take this as arrogant, but I have studied criminal and civil law for a year each in high school, so the one pointer I have (even though mostly you guys should be pointing me) is that although I cannot get them on charges for underage drinking, I could use a defense if they claim they were not aware of what they were doing, that they were drunk underage.

Obviously, that's not my main angle because I technically had been drinking, and I know I can't be compensated for stolen alcohol (I think? Or can I? this is where I need advice) because I am underage too. But I was barely drunk, like I am 5'7" and nearly 170 lbs depending on how much I work out and gain muscle, and I had about 3 beers so I don't think I was even over the legal limit for drunkenness by this time (.08 BAC).

Anyways, other details we are freshman, they are pledging DTD, I have a single room (no roommate), I am jewish by blood and one of these guys I know is catholic, the other guy's dad is a lawyer (California. not necessarily going to help him out, but just wanted to say that in case you guys want to use more caution as a result of that), and as I said I have two years of law study.

I will edit to update if I realize that I left anything out, please don't hesitate to ask any details that you think are important.

Also, just want to draw attention to the fact that they took my last Blue Moon and I was really looking forward to having that on Tuesday afternoon for the last day of Mardi Gras, and just relaxing on my balcony. As I said, obviously I can't take them to court for that because I am underage but if there's any way that I can sorta fish my way around it to get the money for that (and the other 4 beers stolen) so that I could buy a new one tomorrow or something.. getting a new one wouldn't be an issue. Any ideas?

Ignore that last part if you don't have the time/energy, because the rest is more important.

Thank you very much.

Submitted February 17, 2015 at 09:09AM by owlsrule143 http://ift.tt/1EGT1OS legaladvice