[puffoflogic]

This is not a story I would tell online. When your aunt threatened to go to the police and then failed to follow through, it may have become extortion. You can threaten to sue; you can actually go to the police; you can even tell someone you're going to the police; but what you cannot do is merely threaten to go to the police.

[arcastroe]

"Send me $10,000 or I will go to the police to report past bullying of my child" is extortion. "Stop future bullying or I will go to the police to report said bullying" is not extortion. IANAL.

[tomrod]

Extortion: the practice of obtaining something, especially money, through force or threats.

If I squint my eyes I can sort of see what you're getting at. But on the flip side, this aunt also called the parent to make sure their duty was done. So it would be hard to claim "discipline your child, please, else I will need to file a police report to stop your child's harassment" is extortion.

[mlyle]

I agree this is probably not extortion, but people step close to this line and have been surprised by prosecution or litigation. e.g. pay for the damages or I'm going to the police...

[candiodari]

Even if you somehow agree with this, you must realise it won’t work. Good luck convincing the police, the prosecution or a judge that use of the justice system is extortion ...

[mlyle]

We're not talking about use of the justice system-- we're talking about threatened use of the justice system. Which can still be OK, but one has to be very careful. People especially get into trouble using threats of a report to police to attempt to recover stolen property.

[rdtwo]

Why not threaten? I know where I live there is zero chance police will actually recover the property but I suppose some percent of the time the other person might not know that.

[mlyle]

Because it's legally extortion. There have been a number of times where:

A. Business owner discovers an employee has stolen property.

B. Business owner demands return of the property or the owner will notify police.

C. Employee pays, and business owner is charged with extortion or is found civilly liable for extortion.