AITA for grounding my son and cutting off his allowance after I found out he and his friends bullied an elderly man in our neighbourhood?

So I (32F) have a 14-year-old son, Jake. He’s always been a good kid, or so I thought. He’s never gotten in trouble at school or anything like that, so what happened recently completely caught me off guard.

There’s an older man in our neighbourhood, Mr. Turner. He’s probably in his late 70s or early 80s, lives alone, and honestly, he keeps to himself. He doesn’t bother anyone. I’ve only spoken to him a couple of times, but he seems kind, just shy.

A few days ago, I started noticing Jake acting kind of weird being secretive with his phone, laughing with his friends when they thought no one was watching. I didn’t think much of it until I overheard him on the phone with one of his friends. They were laughing about how they’d been “messing with the old man.”

I was confused at first, so I kept listening, and what I heard made my stomach turn. They’d been egging Mr. Turner’s house, knocking over his trash bins, and even recording it for some kind of group chat. They thought it was hilarious that Mr. Turner was scared and yelling at them to stop.

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. When Jake got off the phone, I confronted him, and of course, he denied everything at first. But when I told him I heard the whole conversation, he finally admitted it. He kept saying, “It’s not a big deal, Mum, it’s just a prank,” like that was supposed to make it okay.

I was so mad I couldn’t even look at him for a minute. I told him he was grounded for a month no phone, no going out, and his allowance is done until further notice. I also made him write an apology letter to Mr. Turner, and the next day, I walked him over there to apologise in person. Jake was mortified, but I wasn’t about to let him off the hook.

Mr. Turner was kind about it, but I could tell he was upset. He said he’d been scared the boys were going to hurt him or break into his house. Hearing that broke my heart. I told him Jake would be happy to help clean up anything they’d done, but he said it wasn’t necessary. Still, I could see the damage had already been done.

Jake, of course, is furious with me. He says I overreacted and that I’m ruining his life by embarrassing him. Some of the other parents in the neighbourhood heard about it and called me, saying “boys will be boys” and that I’m being too harsh.

Now I’m sitting here wondering if I went too far. I’m not going to lie, part of me is hurt that Jake even thought this kind of behaviour was okay. I feel like I failed him somehow. I don’t know if grounding him and cutting off his allowance was too much, or if I should’ve done more.

AITA?