Ex-girlfriends Sister Wants An 8 Year Old Gift Back - Wi

Location: Wisconsin

I'm not really too worried about actually being taken to court here, to be honest, my friends and I have been laughing at the whole situation, and someone had the idea to ask Reddit, so here I am.

Around eight years ago, when I was in high school, I was friends with a girl, let's call her Anne, (later that year we started dating and broke up around 2.5 years after), who gifted me her old Monster High Doll collection because she knew I collected them - still do. She offered them to me, and I accepted, so her mom drove her to my house, and they dropped them off.

It was so long ago now that I can't remember exactly how many she gave me and which ones she specifically gave me (I have around 400 in my collection, including a few duplicates), but my guess is a few dozen dolls. At this point, I was ~14, Anne was ~15, and the younger sister, let's call her Jane, was ~13. So today, I am 22, Anne is 23, and her sister Jane is 20.

Like I said, Anne and I dated and broke up, and have remained pretty civil and friendly since then. Two days ago, Jane sent me a pretty long text message asking for the dolls. She said that Anne didn't tell her she was giving them to me, and has always wanted them, but never said anything about it.

I planned to just ignore it, but she texted me twice again after to "make sure I saw it," so I explained to her that I do not remember which exact dolls Anne had given me and even if I did, they have been completely incorporated into my collection as I've completed them (like making sure the dolls all had the right earings or shoes or whatever), and in the case of dolls I have multiple of it would be impossible to pick which one I was gifted and which ones I got some other way. I also said that I'm sorry Anne didn't tell her she was gifting them to me, but when she and their mother dropped the dolls off at my house, I figured it was all above board.

Jane responded and said that their mother had no idea that Anne was giving me the dolls (???) and how there was a lot of emotional value connected to the dolls and how it would mean a lot to both Anne, Jane, and their mom to get them back. She also said that she would be able to pick out which specific ones were hers.

I responded with a clear "the answer is no" and told her about how much time and money I put into things like fixing their hair, fixing their joints, and buying the necessary doll accessories to complete them. I told her that if I had known she would try and take them nearly a decade later, I wouldn't have put so much time and money into them.

I am also suspicious of the claim that she could pick which ones were hers. If you are familiar with the first generation of Monster High Dolls, you might know that they are pretty valuable on the resale market, especially in the great condition I have restored mine to. She could very easily just claim that all of the most valuable dolls were hers.

Here's where she starts to involve legality - Jane responds to that message and says that she won't take "no" for an answer. She says that since her parents bought the dolls, they "by law" do not belong to me, were "stolen" by Anne, and given away without permission (let me remind you their mom dropped them off at my house). She compared it to being given a stolen diamond and said something about how if the police asked for that diamond, I would have to give it to them.

I reminded her that her mom dropped them off and asked if she was threatening legal action.

She said that she wasn't sure and started the guilt trip. All I said in response was, "If you are threatening legal action against me, it would be best for us to cease communication." That's the last thing I said to her.

Since then, she has sent me seven messages trying to make me feel guilty and claiming that she wasn't actually threatening me with legal action, but I am not responding to her anymore to play it safe. Crazier, earlier today, she somehow got hold of my younger brother's phone number and sent him a LONG message repeating everything she said to me and asking him to have me respond to her. Luckily, I filled him in on the situation last night, so he didn't respond to her.

Anyway, what do you guys think about the whole situation? Should I be getting ready for a trip to small claims court? Or am I right to find it humorous?