My younger brother steals my underwear and I’m not sure how to move forward.
I’ve never really used reddit before but I recently confided in a friend and they told me to post here.
My brother (15M) has been stealing mine, my sister’s and other female family member’s underwear for a long period of time. My sister (16F) found a large pile of bras, underwear, bikini’s and an array of low-cleavage tops in his room about 6 months ago whilst helping him look for his lost shoes. When she discovered the large pile of clothing, covered by a blanket, he immediately started threatening her to not tell anyone but she eventually did after I realised something was wrong.
She made him promise to return all the clothing washed to their owners, after he said he did me and my sister went into both of his rooms, our parents are divorced, we found not only they hadn’t been returned but more underwear than we had suspected, wedged between the wall and his bed. After this we were forced to tell our mum. She revealed she was aware of this problem after finding underwear under his pillow while washing his bedsheets, however she had not confronted him on this topic (who would want to) due to denial. After she saw how uncomfortable we were she went to shout at him and demanded the return of the underwear.
Next we told our dad, who was in a stronger state of denial after being presented with this information, he blamed these actions on how my brother’s brain works as he is suspected to be autistic; we do not think this is a valid excuse because everyone, no matter how their brain works, should be able to show respect.
After this first incident we regularly checked his rooms, we would find more underwear, we’d confront him and demand he return of the items, he never did so my sister had to do it herself; this cycle repeated. It was obvious he was pleasuring himself inside of these items and it has mentally discomforted me and my sister. We have tried everything, shouted at him, explained why this is wrong and provided an open space for him to talk about this problem yet all efforts are ignored.
As much as I love my mum and dad, me and my sister feel they are not doing enough to put an end to this recurring incident. I feel violently sick whenever I’m around him as I suspected we had a good relationship before this, only to find out how he’s treating my belongings. It’s not the fact he’s stealing our underwear but what it signifies. Me and my sister are frightened that if this behaviour continues he will ended up doing more horrific things throughout his life.
Any advice would be appreciated as we feel it has gotten to a point of no return.