AITAH For turning my friend into a felon?

I’ve known my friend “Jack” for about 20 years and even referred to each other as brothers. “Jack” quit his job about a year before the pandemic to pursue his dream job of being a paid DnD DM. I was down on my luck around this time but did what I could to support him. Refer people, hire him to teach my kids to play etc. when the pandemic hit he had to abandon his dream and moved in with his in-laws and picked up an entry level job. To help out I bought a bunch of things they were unable to sell in order for them to have enough money for the move. At this time I was living pay check to pay check. In 2021 they bought a house way outside their budget and when we would talk in discord over the next 6 months the conversations would devolve into how he was afraid he was going to lose his house because he couldn’t make the payment. At this time I had become more established in my career and found reasons to send them money. Birthday, anniversary, Christmas, house warming etc. I don’t honestly know how much I sent. Fast forward to 2024 and neither has been able to hold on to a job and I’ve now risen to the top in my field. So I offer him a deal, come work for me and learn to do what I do so you can make decent money and get ahead. The plan is that he’ll move in with me (I lived 4 hours away) and in 5 months they can sell their house with no penalty and his wife would join us. She would come see him on her days off and he would go home in his. Here’s where the problem began. I hired him directly in for a management position and to do that required approval from my boss, her boss and her bosses boss but like I said I’m at the top of my field so my word and my name got it pushed through. After about a week his wife decided she was going to quit her job and they cumulatively decided to move their 1500 sqft home into my 900 sqft duplex that was already fully furnished. I anticipated her moving in 5 months when they went to sell their house and at that time he would’ve made enough to get them their own apartment. I wasn’t charging him rent or for utilities. He kept telling me how uncomfortable it is for his wife to live in the small duplex. So we went apartment hunting. I found us a nice 3 bedroom house, it was a 75% jump in rent so I asked for a commitment of 9 months before he moved out and once his house was sold they’d help with rent. He agreed. So I paid for everything, the move the down payment and the rent. Oh and I gave them a few thousand to get a vehicle and rent a uhaul.

Side note: at this time I had been dating a woman that told me she couldn’t have kids so I had bought her a standard poodle puppy that would be our daughter (she use to have a standard poodle that she missed dearly and this one was the spitting image) this is a whole other story but to summarize she had been cheating and lying and I ended up keeping the puppy but it was going to be an issue because “Jacks” dog has aggression issues and attacks other dogs.

So while I’m at work the dog has to stay kenneled but I come home twice since I’m less than 5 min away to let her out. But his wife starts getting the puppy out to play with her while I’m at work and buying her things off amazon. (They haven’t even offered to pay any bill).

About a month in “Jack” tells me they decided to move to Washington to live with another friend and he will be quitting in 4 weeks. Needless to say I’m furious and don’t really speak to them for a few days. As I’m already depressed from the break up. On the 5th day I come home and they had packed up and moved. Now, I’m stuck with a huge house with increased rent that I don’t need. Short staffed at work with a set back that essentially cost me 10s of thousands of dollars, tarnished my work reputation AND HE STOLE MY PUPPY. AITAH for turning them in and making them felons?

TLDR: AITAH for turning my friend of 20 years in to the police for stealing my dog?

Posted Jun 23, 2025, 4:14 AM UTC

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