AIO - my ex won’t give back my phone

okay so almost a year ago now my ex was being stupid and reckless with his phone and broke it, so i offered him my old one to use as a temporary fix until he gets a new one, but we broke up around the end of sept/start of oct. the only reason i kept this phone after i got my new one was so that i could use it as an emergency fund and sell it if financial times ever got tough - as a broke uni student it seemed like a good idea and i was under the impression that he’d be using it for a month or two months max before returning it to me, which is why i was willing to lend it to him. i made these terms explicit when i agreed to this, and he knows the instability of my financial situation and that it was my emergency fund. the breakup i thought was civil, and i thought we were on amicable terms - not friends but like hypothetically we wouldn’t get into a fight if we ran into each other on the street yk? i broke things off with him, but i didn’t think to ask about the phone in the moment of the breakup.

in december, i didn’t have enough money to buy groceries, pay my bills, or pay my rent so i reached out to him asking if i could find a way to get my phone back because it’s ultimately mine. that’s where the instagram dms are from - u can see how that went - and he just stopped replying all together after mid december. he also ignored my friend messaging her about it despite him still watching her stories, and has since soft blocked me on ig.

the feb messages are from when i tried calling him abt it because again my financial situation wasn’t good and he STILL wouldn’t pick up or respond, which is when i sent the long message. the messages after that were sent after i called on no caller id and he finally picked up, but when i said hello? he didn’t say a word and immediately hung up. i’ve threatened him w small claims court after following my friends’ advice, but my mum says i’m taking it too far. am i overreacting? i feel like it’s pretty fucking audacious to ignore me on MY OWN phone. i know it’s not worth much now but as a broke student that money can feed me for a few weeks!!! i’m struggling paycheck to paycheck as i can’t work full time so every little helps and i feel like he’s not giving me much choice. advice would be appreciated 🥲