Being able to promote above one's own rank is a pretty blatant design flaw, and should never work like that. It's extremely disappointing if SE really calls this working as intended. I don't blame you at all for assuming it would work the way you thought, since most rational people would expect it to. Good luck getting your stuff back. I encourage you to make repeated inquiries and don't just accept the first "no" you get. You aren't in the wrong here and you deserve to have the situation resolved.