AITA for reporting my uncle to the executor of my grandmother's estate after he claimed she had given him permission to take items from her house while she was in memory care
ok so my grandmother has been in memory care for about a year now. she has moderate to severe cognitive decline and isnt capable of making sound decisions about her assets. her estate has a named executor, a family friend who's also a lawyer, and the understanding within the family was that nothing from her house was to be removed until the estate was properly handled
then about three months ago i went to check on the house and noticed things were missing. not small things either. furniture, some artwork, a few pieces of jewelry that i knew had been discussed as part of the estate
i asked around and my uncle said my grandmother had told him he could have those things and he had simply collected them
i asked when this conversation happened and he said a few months ago when he had visited her
my grandmother cannot reliably remember what she had for breakfast. shes not in a position to make valid decisions about distributing estate assets
so i contacted the executor. he took it seriously, sent a formal letter to my uncle requesting the items be returned pending proper estate process. my uncle refused and said the letter was insulting and that he had his grandmother's blessing
the executor escalated. i wont go into all the details but the items were eventually returned
my uncle is furious now and saying i should have come to him directly first and handled it within the family. said i went nuclear over something that could have been resolved with a conversation
i did have a conversation with him. he told me my grandmother gave him permission and that was the end of it
AITA?