Her boyfriend let friends cut 11 patches off her childhood backpack. When she revealed 3 were from her late dad, his reply ended the relationship

Some belongings are more than just "things" because they carry sentimental value. On September 29, 2026, Morgan Ashley Absher, host of Two Hot Takes (@twohottakes), shared a story about a woman who questioned her entire relationship because of her childhood backpack. It started when her boyfriend, Jacob, gave 11 patches from her favorite backpack to his friends. The woman was furious because she'd been collecting commemorative patches since she was 14. Few of them were especially special because her father, who passed away a year ago, had gifted them to her. The original (now-deleted) post shared by u/backpackdrama has received over 2,000 upvotes.

A souvenir heist

The woman carried the backpack everywhere. She had collected 35 patches so far, and three were extremely precious because her late dad had gifted them to her. "He loved helping me find new patches and brought me three limited-release patches that are now very expensive and difficult to find," the woman recalled. Once, she, Jacob, and two of their mutual friends were at her apartment watching Netflix. She had an early shift the next day, so she went to bed before her boyfriend.

The next morning, she noticed 11 patches missing from her backpack. Worried, she woke Jacob up and asked what happened to her bag. He explained that he invited three friends over. "At one point, one of them saw my backpack sitting in the living room and said it was cool, and they wanted one." Jacob said they could take some if they wanted, and they did. "They cut 11 patches off my bag," the woman explained.

Friends over feelings?

The woman told Jacob to call his friends and ask for her patches back. But what he said next made her livid. "He said he would for the ones from my dad, but he would look too bad if he asked for the rest that didn't mean as much." The woman asked Jacob if he cared more about his friends' opinions or hers. When he hesitated to answer, she told him to leave. Thankfully, the woman got her patches back, but it was not that easy. Some gave them back when she told them what they meant to her, but for a few others, she had to go to their houses and demand they give them back. 10 years later, she revealed that Jacob, now her ex-boyfriend, never apologized for what he did.

In her update, she also recalled finding her dad's old backpack while clearing out his storage unit. "I cleaned it out, and that was the new base. I still have it to this day, and I have added new patches since," the woman said.

The dealbreaker

People have different dealbreakers in relationships. For some, it's lack of trust or honesty. While for others, giving away sentimental possessions is enough to call it quits. A Storage & Moving Study cited by PR Newswire found that 1 in 3 Americans would break up if their partner got rid of something sentimental. A 2022 YouGov survey asked people if they've thrown away something that belonged to their partners just because they disliked them. 24% said 'yes,' while 68% did not. It shows that the majority of people respected their partners' items even if they did not like them. As for Jacob, the fact that he gave his girlfriend's patches away to his friends showed how he did not respect her things.

'What's wrong with him?'

Meanwhile, people could not believe Jacob's audacity to give away something that did not even belong to him. @nerak143 wrote, "Who in their right mind would even think this is okay? Even the person cutting them off the backpack should have known better! The math ain't mathin here! Something definitely is off with this dude!" @handmadebykuwit gave an example: "Who the hell even thinks of giving away something that doesn’t belong to them? Oh, you like my boyfriend's action figure collection? Take your pick! Grab his Xbox while you’re at it!"

You can follow Two Hot Takes (@twohottakes) for more dating/relationship stories.

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