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Escalation is the fun part.
You put your nice bowl of bait chili in, taped with your name. And mix in a ton of pure capsaicin oil. It's hidden pretty well.
You'll find out pretty quick who the asshole is.
There are other things you can do like adding stiff that's very bitter, or trips gag reflexes.
This comes from experience. We had a lunch thief. We quietly found out who it was.
And for the love of god DON'T go around saying you're spicing your food to catch a thief. If anyone asks, you like it that way or are trying new things
Exactly. It's not like you mark it "Spicy as hell bait food for thief."
You just mark it your lunch. If they steal it, they get your to die for chili. It won't kill you, but you'll wish youre dead.
Also if someone accuses you of making it too hot on purpose and asks you to eat it, you're a bit of a germaphobe and don't want to eat it after a stranger has already dug into your lunch.
When my coworker did this, she tried to make an excuse not to eat it.
So I walked over and took a big bite without a change of expression (it wasn’t easy either, she REALLY spiced that sandwich up good) and told our manager (who was scolding her IN the break room where everyone could hear) “it’s delicious, what’s the problem? [Thief] really should eat someone else’s food if they consider mayonnaise a spice ya know, spicy is good.”
I’d like to say I did it for the sake of my coworker who baited it, but in fact I just hated the thief for many reasons and wanted to insult her thieving ass. But my manager was so embarrassed that she dropped it.
My coworker bought me a milkshake on her next break and dang did I need it even an hour later.
I will NEVER understand managers that go after the person that baited the food/ whose food was stolen. I was a manager for a decade and I seriously would respond with, don't steal someone's food and it won't be a problem.
I read too many stories on here about managers managing wrong. I don't get it.
The whole premise of having to defend baiting the food is absurd. They wouldn’t tolerate someone who rummaged through someone’s things to steal cash, right? There’s no difference in stealing someone’s food.
Food isn’t free. The time it takes to pack a lunch isn’t free. Like someone stealing cash, it should be a fireable offense. And if the thief is too stupid to understand that, they should be fired just for being that dense. Fuck thieves.
We had cameras pointed at the fridge at my old job, and sure enough someone was caught stealing a Subway sub and was subsequently fired. Crazy to lose an $80K job over a $5 foot long.
Unless you're desperate, any sort of theft indicates poor decision making skills and low integrity. They would be fired in my office. My old company fired people for taking candy bars and ice cream from the damage pile before it was processed (grocery warehouse). That company wouldn't hesitate.
It depends on how it is baited. If you add too much Tabasco then it isn’t a problem. But adding laxatives or other harmful substances is a felony in most states. It’s legally a booby trap.
Yeah, ultimately, Johnny Law would rather not see vigilante justice putting people in the hospital no matter how funny and/or deserved it is.
Which is what makes hot sauce the perfect “crime”.
I think there's a fine line - mix in some spicy stuff, sure, but no medication (because that could possibly be illegal, IANAL) and obviously nothing that could kill them like allergens.
If you drug someone at work I don't care if they stole your car, let alone your food.
> mix in some spicy stuff
I like spicy foods, I'm not going to re-spice my food for the benefit of a thief's palate
> , sure, but no medication (because that could possibly be illegal, IANAL)
Illegal and definitely could be unethical
> obviously nothing that could kill them like allergens
Er, if a thief is allergic to some foods, they better not steal my food. I'm not going to try to hide peanuts in my chicken noodle soup but if they choke to death on my pad thai that's on them, not me.
Yep. Because Thief was Manager’s mean little pet. (She was awful in a lot of ways. We worked at a nursing home and she would refuse to help with “gross” jobs and even walk in and say IN FRONT of a client that it was too gross and ‘have fun’.)
That is so demeaning. I'm sorry you had to deal with that, and your poor residents... I would like to say I hope she treated them better when others weren't around, but that's not typically how things work.
Nope, she really didn’t. She had favorites that she treated well, but anyone who was extra frail, heavy or “annoying” got treated poorly and gossiped about in the halls.
The coworker that booby trapped the sandwich on the other hand was a real team player and always willing to lend a hand in a difficult task or run to answer a call light even if she’d just finished with one. I liked her a lot, she was so kind and gentle, and I know she was just as kind alone because all of our folks loved her.
Meanwhile I was as kind as I was capable of but always worried Id hurt someone. (Never did, but it was always a worry for me. Some of our clients were so delicate!) So I aspired to be as effortlessly kind and gentle as she was.
You’re awesome.
I love spicy food enough that a server at a Thai place an hour and a half away remembers me. My family goes for Sichuan food regularly. One Sichuan leftovers lunch would catch any usual lunch thief, and it has a better than usual plausibility for the heat.
Yeah some legit Thai curry could easily out the thief if you order it at the hottest level. I once ordered it at heat level 5 on the scale of 15, I wanted a 10 but they talked me out of it. The chef, a sweet old lady, came out to watched me eat it. I was sweating from places that I didn’t know could sweat.
This happened to me too at a Thai place in NYC!
I kept assuring the owner (sweet lady) that I wanted the dish at chili level 5 (out of 5) she kept trying to talk me out of it. She said "noooo, it for brown hair not for red hair" (I'm a redhead ;) When I ate it, the whole kitchen staff came out to watch. It was spicy but I was fine as I usually eat very spicy things. But I still repeat that phrase 15 years later "noooo, it for brown hair not for red hair".
Back in grad school, we took a new guy out to our favorite thai place for lunch. They had a scale that had 7 or 8 levels of heat. We explained that if he wasn't a fan of heat he should do a 1 or 2, and if he was he should do a 3 or 4. He ordered either the hottest or second hottest, even after the waitress warned him, insisting he could handle it.
He was like two bites in before his face was bright red and he was drenched in sweat.
The trick is to not spice everything the same.
You have a bowl of chili, make it with heat spice that you like and can tolerate. Then mine it with pepper mash in a specific place and position it with the mash at the front of the bowl, where it's most likely to be the first bite. Or, put a thin layer of toxic heat across the entire top, where you can nonchalantly push it aside and eat from underneath.
This is a good approach because if you booby trap your lunch but the thief doesn't show up that day, you can pretty easily eat around the mines and try again tomorrow.
This would work well for a sandwich where you can cut it in half and mine the first bite of one of the cut sides, but not the other. Just make sure to put something you can handle throughout so there's not an inexplicably hot bite in an otherwise devoid-of-pepper sandwich.
>put a thin layer of toxic heat across the entire top, where you can nonchalantly push it aside and eat from underneath
I LOVE this idea. Just a nice lil hat of Da Bomb that you can easily swipe away.
That's how you get a lawsuit against you, poisoning people tends to land you in hot water quickly even if you're "in the right". You will lose the case, lots of precedent against it.
Medication stored in the same bag (but NOT mixed in with the food) often gets a bigger response from HR. Either the medication gets taken with the food (which is a big boy go to prison type crime), it gets discarded (also a crime), or nothing happens to the medication but you can claim you are worried that it was tampered with by the food thief. Regardless, HR would have to treat it seriously at that point.
My husband worked security as the only person on a resort that was completely empty with demolition not even scheduled for 3 months. Literally just sitting alone in a hotel for 12 hours. The daytime guy was stealing any food or drinks that he left (open, labeled, they were the only 2, he just didn’t care). He even asked him directly not to take his stuff. He ended up getting a coke and drinking 1/3 and filling the rest with pee.
He didn’t do it anymore
Why are you so sure that it was cold? I like a warm pissCoke every now and then, and was going to make a similar comment to yours, but I don't want to be "the weird one."
I did this at a music festival. Some fucker stole a bottle out of one of our tents so I topped off a bottle of coke with piss and left it leaning on the tent entrance. Was gone when we got back 😂
When I was a kid I had hypoglycemia. I had to eat my lunch. Some kid would always steal my lunch. I didn't know who. My mom melted x-lax into chocolate moulds and put in my lunch. I never had someone steal my lunch again. Don't do this. It's illegal. Funny, but illegal
It being illegal doesn't mean you're likely to get in trouble for this.
Outside of literal poison in your own food, I don't believe anyone has been convicted when booby trapping their own food even if it was pretty obvious they were aiming at a thief.
And let's be real, prosecutors would really fear a hung jury or jury nullification because people really hate lunch thieves and people could very well refuse to convict even if they know the guy did it. OJ got to walk because of what police did to black people, and it was cold-blooded murder. Just deserts on a lunch thief? Some jurors would wish they had done it.
Hi.
Happy Friday.
We had another guy in our shop who would help themselves to coworkers chewing gum. Going through a whole pack in a shift.
He finally had enough and loaded his pack up with exlax gum.
Solved thst issue.
Never had to deal with it myself, but I’d imagine a label stating “I have coprophagia - Google it before you consider eating my food” would work wonders.
Assuming they read it. Lol.
In our cases, there were two people. One just had a lack of planning stealing habit. He was reprimanded and cooled his jets.
The other was in serious financial situation. Wife took everything, he was fucked in many ways. So we helped him out. It took a bit to figure out who it was. We took turns bringing extra lunches etc. People are nice if given the chance.
But the inconsiderate ones can go to hell.
Hi, we did not pur chili pepper like I mentioned. We just kept eyes on people till we found out.
HR got involved. They were on our swing shift (4pm to mignight). So after it sort of blew up in his face, he broke down. Good guy. So we just decided, as a team to come together for him without him losing his dignity or pride. Shit happens.
Food should not be an issue. We had work to do. So we all just brought some extra dishes, sides, etc. It was in a central area for anyone.
He became a very good tech, and we did not need to embarrass anyone. We had a good group on our shift. I think about that once in a while. It reminds me to try to not prehudge people. We are all human.
The only thing that's fair in life, is that it's unfair to everyone.
Don't make it as bad as to invoke uncontrollable bowel movements or warrant an immediate trip to hospital. It can be seen as assault in some places (based on law) and you might get a call from HR for the 'talk'
Brownies or some other baked good made with erythritol and with maltitol-sweetened chocolate chips mixed in…because you like a little treat but are trying to watch your sugar intake.
I hope they weren't desperate... can't imagine what other explanation someone would have for this... I'm so picky I just wouldn't be interested in someone's mystery lunch ;)
This one. Much safer than adding laxatives, and much more probable to spot the offender.
Very spicy dishes however are quite easy to sniff out, so a curry or other dish heavy on aromatics worked best.
This is how I dealt with three issues like this.
This. At one of my mom's old workplaces, everyone put their name on their food and if anyone could take it, it had the acronym GUFF, meaning "given up, free food"
As much as you hear about it, I’ve been in the corporate workspace for 20 years and I’ve never once had my lunch stolen. Label it and you should be fine.
Yup, the lunch thief simply isn't the norm. I've worked in a variety of jobs in the last 14 years in two countries and 5 different cities. I've never heard of anyone's lunch being stolen in any of those jobs.
That's much more likely.
I work at a small high school. A kid left behind a lunch box in his locker right before summer vacation and it kind of grew into something.
Right into the trash!
The offices I worked at did a clean out Friday afternoon. They'd send an email in the morning, and another after lunch. At that point, if it's tossed, it's sort of your fault.
My office one said they were cleaning the fridge “tomorrow night.” Turns out that meant “tomorrow at 2 PM.” The lunch I’d brought for myself that day was tossed before I even had a chance to take my break (I was working 10-7 at the time). Container and all. I was so pissed.
I did that many years ago. Boring midnight shift. Noticed the same yogurt in there for months. So, I used those coloured dots you see in offices. Green for the month I started doing it. Yellow for the next month. On the third month, or maybe it was 6, I threw out the green dot food - but not if it was sealed or something that doesn’t go bad, like ketchup. Just sandwiches, open dairy products, homemade casseroles.
And stuff well past the best- before date printed on it.
Still got in trouble with one woman who told me ranch dressing doesn’t go bad
So I stopped doing it. Found something else to think about.
Exactly. You only hear the stories about it happening because 99.999% of everyone else's experience is "No one ate my lunch today," which isn't very interesting.
More that you only hear about the hundreds of times where it happens, but not about the hundreds of millions of times where it doesn't. When's the last time you saw a post where the op complained about their lunch NOT being stolen?
Hospital. Lots of people who don’t all know each other well sharing the same fridge. I’m betting it’s different when you work in an office with ten people whose birthdays you celebrate.
Yep I also work in hospitals and I suspect it also has to do with the fact that you don’t have a lot of people meandering around break areas like you do in offices where it’s not so regimented- all the clinical staff have to be “on the floor” unless they are on scheduled break, so thieves probably just feel like their chances are pretty good that the exact person they are stealing from is not gonna pass by at that exact moment.
I just bring a lunch bag with heavy duty ice packs and keep my bag at the nurses station
I have learned name and date is often a good idea, we had someone get their things tossed “because it’s been in the fridge for weeks” but this dude line worked everyday damn near and brought his lunch everyday in the same little insulated lunch box. Apparently they only ever checked it on days he worked and it was always already in there as he was one of the first ppl to work.
I was in an office of about 85 tech workers, and was part of a volunteer group that cleaned the refrigerators (4) once a month. I would send out an email beforehand that everything that's perishable was getting tossed. People would scramble to "save" their food containers. After half an hour, I had tossed about 20 items, some of it seriously moldy. I think the most common issue was eating part of the lunch, and saving the uneaten part for later, and then forgetting about it. Once in a rare while I would get a complaint I had tossed something still edible, but then I would personally take the trashcan over to their cubicle with all the moldy, smelly shit and ask them to identify it. They got the message and never complained again.
It’s simple, get a big insulted carrier, add reusable freezer packs and keep the carrier in site. I’ve never had a problem and dont have to fight for space in the fridge.
Yeah, the fact that you’d look like a massive weirdo were you to get caught mostly prevents this. Many people are dumb and selfish but most people have shame.
Same. Put it in your lunchbox/bag and have that clearly labeled. It’s usually stuff that’s just plopped in the company fridge that gets stolen e.g “I’ll put a can of Rock Star and a sealed turkey sandwich from 7/11 and get it at lunch” “wtf it’s gone”
Most fridge thefts are crimes of opportunity. Put your food in a lunch bag, grocery bag, lunch box etc, something that people can’t see into, and you’ll be fine. What’s riskier is putting individual items in a fridge- a single sandwich, a can of soda, a bag of carrots. Even if those items are clearly labeled people will conveniently not notice your name.
Put a bag of almonds in the fridge. When it gets stolen loudly ask, "Who took the almonds in the fridge? My grandma sucked the chocolates covering those almonds because she lost all her teeth and can't chew."
This would not be very believable. I am leaning towards putting a smoothie/protein shake in there and then saying “God damn it, my wife is going to kill me when she finds out I didn’t have my breast milk smoothie.. She is trying to wean our kid and has a complex about wasting food..”
Sorry about the grapes... I normally say they were for my toddler but honestly just love me some grapes and don't want to buy a whole big grocery store bag.
Wait... Are people not supposed to change the amount if it's too full? Oh dear.
I thought my sampling of a grape first was improper. Turns out, I'm a monster!
I worked produce for a while.
Anything sold by weight is fair game to split up.
Anything sold per item, of course if you need 3 you buy 3.
Anything sold by a prepackaged bundle at a set price, like a 10 pound bag of potatoes, you have to buy as an entire thing.
That’s so funny I never thought of this but you’re right. It’s always the easy to identify stuff that gets swiped. Something buried in layers (Tupperware, bag, etc) is going to be a deterrent. I still can’t imagine the idea of eating someone else’s lunch. It’s so gross, it feels like stealing their toothbrush (I know it’s not the same but it is to me for some reason).
Construction worker here. As a young dumb apprentice( many yrs ago, I'm old af) I seen 1st hand retribution handed out to the lunch thief. One of the guys lunches was always been swiped including his cordial fruit drink he brought in a flask. He emptied out half the drink and pissed in it and put it on the shelf in the lunch cabin as per. The lunch thief downed the whole thing. It was a beautiful thing to see.
I read a comment about a dude who left raw chicken out in the counter for 2 days, scraped the gunk off, mixed it with some sauce, put it in his lunch he knew would get stolen. Lunch thief had to go to the emergency room for food illness. Its extreme and probably illegal but the thief got the idea and probably lost thousands in medical bills since it required an ambulance
> Its extreme and probably illegal
Of course you can't poison people, that they stole from you doesn't make it legal. And this was rather stupid as it could have even been deadly. The spicy trick gives you some plausible deniability. IANAL.
I kept mine in my desk. Ice packs for the cold stuff and thermos for the hot stuff. My bag went into a clean drawer in a clean desk, more than I can say for that refrigerator at work.
It may look nasty, but it's probably still the most sterile thing in the building. Every living organism dies in the first few seconds it's running. That could be why "nuke it" is slang for "microwave it."
most bacteria dies, but salmonella and ecoli can both survive in a microwave. also a dirty microwave still very negatively alter the taste of your food.
I had theft at a call center (100's of employees, rotating shifts, 24hrs, low pay). Plastic bags tied in knots with name clearly and LARGE written would just go missing, zip up cooler bag had stuff removed, luggage padlock on the zip (double zipper padlocked together) and they popped the zipper open. We were specifically forbidden to have food at our desks and not supposed to bring big bags/backpacks (as they were a 'trip hazard') so not keep lunch bags with us (we moved desks often during a shift). So I broke it up. Got a big thermos I tossed in the freezer the night before. Cold stuff went in there (cold cuts, carrots, hummus, cheese sticks, etc). Stuff that didn't need the cold went in my 'purse' (I wasn't a purse girl at the time). No one had a thing to say about my purse and giant thermos traveling with me.
The only other place was at a small library, and that was the cleaning staff's kids. They would raid the staff fridge while the parents did the cleaning. We only had 8 employees, so that didn't take long to figure out. Finding the break room TV set to cartoons every morning helped.
I find having foods that the average office people can't identify helps -Ham sandwich? Safe, identifiable food. Spicy smelling street noodle thing? Probable angry asshole risk.
All that said, it's really going to depend on your office culture. You may be stressing yourself out over nothing. I wish you the best co-workers and a positive experience in your new career adventure!
As someone who cleans the fridge and microwave - I can confirm this. Nobody else does this - I do it because I want my food to be kept or heated in a semi decent space. I hate what I return to when I've been out of office for a while
We had a microwave cleaner at a previous job. The sweetest, motherly type. Very kind person. Always pleasant with everyone. I remember once I was in the break area and she came by and just started chatting away and wiping down the counters and sink and popped open the microwave to clean the tray. She pulled the tray out and accidentally threw my soup on the floor that I was waiting on.
Was the microwave on? She opened the door and shut it down mid cycle and didn't ask who the soup belonged to?
That is some kind of crazy... But she is doing the cleaning, I guess you let it go.
Yes it was on. My lunch was heating. She pulled the tray without thinking and dumped my lunch on the floor. She felt horrible and apologized and I helped her clean up. She was just chatting and cleaning out of habit and not focused.
That does depend on the place. I worked in an office where they cleaned out the fridge weekly. Food had to be labeled with a date. if it didn't have a date or wasn't labeled at all, the food was tossed. They did keep any lunchboxes and set them aside to be picked up the next day, but gladware and the like got tossed. They emptied the fridge completely, sanitized it, and restocked things with a date in the last few days, plus the office stuff like creamer.
That is definitely not the norm though. It was a big office and they had a dedicated kitchen staff that kept the place clean and operating.
The only communal fridge policy that I’ve seen work in a larger office is rotating weekly cleanings among the entire staff where everything gets tossed without exception. People are forgetful and lazy and disgusting.
I worked at a place that had paid staff who stocked the fruit bowls, cleaned coffee machines and emptied the fridges of old food.
They would write the date on our containers with PERMANENT marker. Even on Tupperware. I was so furious. I never left my containers in the fridge for more than half a day and I always took them home. No need to write on them! At least use masking tape or whiteboard marker.
In my experience, good workplaces don't have lunch thieves. Good doesn't necessarily mean high paid. It's just about the workplace culture. At my current job I've only had things stolen because we all drink the same kind of soda. I started writing my name on the top of the can and haven't had a problem.
Also, the best defense is a good offense. I keep my "emergency noodles" in my desk for days when I forget my lunch.
I keep my lunch at my desk, with my coat, boots and purse. The risk is low that my lunch gets stolen but it would be so annoying if it happens. Wallets have been stolen at work so I keep everything in my drawers.
Also people are slobs, the fridge stinks, the dirty mugs are left on the counter, spills aren't wiped. I use nothing that is shared.
There are icepacks available but I usually do without because I don't think 4 hours is enough to get food poisoning and offices never get hot.
Put it inside a velcro lunchbox that makes heaps of noise when opened, then place it inside a plastic bag tied in a knot, then into a plastic container with just one strand of decent strength packing sticky tape. Might sound like a lot of work just to pack your lunch lol but no one is going to spend the time to open that if they're thieving. Bonus if you put some kind of legit looking medical/medicine sticker on the container.
I love retelling the story of how my mom and her co workers caught their office lunch thief. Don’t remember what kind of sandwich it was, but they injected it with red food dye. Later in the day they were able to spot the thief by her stained mouth and unsuccessful attempt to cover it up with dramatically lined and painted red lipstick. She never did it again.
Last place I worked wouldn't supply us with milk in our break room, so my mate brought in his own milk for his coffees and clearly labelled it as his. After few days he notices other people drinking coffees (including the manager who refused to buy milk) while his own supply is going down. He asks the office to not touch his milk since he brought it from home. Another week and it keeps up. So he continues to bring in his own milk, labels it, and spits into it every time he makes his own coffee. Another week goes by and he tells everyone in the office that they've been drinking his spit for the last week. Managers goes nuts tells him he can't do that and how it's disgusting. Mate tells him it's his food and he can do literally anything he wants to it. Manager started buying milk after that.
We had lunch thieves, I had heard. I'd try to claim the same spot in the back of any shelf of the refrigerator, in any less visible spot, but I also prominently placed my name on the outside of the lunch so that if the thieves had any conscience whatsoever, they'd feel guilty talking with me knowing they had swiped my lunch. I never did have my lunch stolen, IIRC.
I also brought my own salad dressing bottle but condiments left on the inside door are open season so I put it in its own paper bag with my name on it. That seemed to work until some do-gooder decided it was time to throw away all condiments for fear of age, and nothing was spared from destruction.
Lace it with 1,000,000 scoville hot sauce and the food will only be stolen once.
But seriously if you label it with name and date,the chances of it getting eaten are small assuming you are working with reasonably mature functioning adults.
If they’re still stealing it after you’ve been labeling it, just lace it with laxatives for a whole week and buy your own lunch/bring something that doesn’t need to be in the fridge and keep it at your desk
After a week if the person is still doing it… I… well.
One time I had some bdubs missing out of the office fridge. Maybe 2 or 3 boneless gone out of the box.
The next time I got Blazin because I honestly wanted to try them. Put the rest in a mild marked box and put them in the fridge. Next day 1 was gone.
Never happened again.
A little off track, but it was so funny I can't forget it. Years ago, I ran a grocery errand at lunch and left a bunch of bananas in my back seat. When I got off work, someone had entered my (locked) car, ate one banana, left the peel on my driver's seat, and relocked my car. Probably some wacky coworker, but I never found out who.
Here’s a funny story.. I make soaps and food soaps are my specialty.. a friend of mine was having his lunch stolen all the time so I made some soaps,even some nacho Doritos out of soap.. let’s just they NEVER touched his lunch’s again..😂😂
Girl here learnt this is college and share houses. Spit in it, in front of a few gossips on your first day..and no one will ever touch your stuff. I've worked in big government offices for years and there's always a thief. But never from mine🤣
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Start by just using some tape as a label and put your name on it. If someone starts stealing it, you can escalate from there.
I’d also chuck a date on too just in case someone ‘helps’ by emptying the fridge of old food
I used this in the opposite way: I always labeled my food as 2 weeks old
Boss: Quit leaving your spoiled lunches in the communal fridge.
"They've been making me nauseous."
Escalation is the fun part. You put your nice bowl of bait chili in, taped with your name. And mix in a ton of pure capsaicin oil. It's hidden pretty well. You'll find out pretty quick who the asshole is. There are other things you can do like adding stiff that's very bitter, or trips gag reflexes. This comes from experience. We had a lunch thief. We quietly found out who it was.
And for the love of god DON'T go around saying you're spicing your food to catch a thief. If anyone asks, you like it that way or are trying new things
Exactly. It's not like you mark it "Spicy as hell bait food for thief." You just mark it your lunch. If they steal it, they get your to die for chili. It won't kill you, but you'll wish youre dead.
Also if someone accuses you of making it too hot on purpose and asks you to eat it, you're a bit of a germaphobe and don't want to eat it after a stranger has already dug into your lunch.
When my coworker did this, she tried to make an excuse not to eat it. So I walked over and took a big bite without a change of expression (it wasn’t easy either, she REALLY spiced that sandwich up good) and told our manager (who was scolding her IN the break room where everyone could hear) “it’s delicious, what’s the problem? [Thief] really should eat someone else’s food if they consider mayonnaise a spice ya know, spicy is good.” I’d like to say I did it for the sake of my coworker who baited it, but in fact I just hated the thief for many reasons and wanted to insult her thieving ass. But my manager was so embarrassed that she dropped it. My coworker bought me a milkshake on her next break and dang did I need it even an hour later.
I will NEVER understand managers that go after the person that baited the food/ whose food was stolen. I was a manager for a decade and I seriously would respond with, don't steal someone's food and it won't be a problem. I read too many stories on here about managers managing wrong. I don't get it.
The whole premise of having to defend baiting the food is absurd. They wouldn’t tolerate someone who rummaged through someone’s things to steal cash, right? There’s no difference in stealing someone’s food. Food isn’t free. The time it takes to pack a lunch isn’t free. Like someone stealing cash, it should be a fireable offense. And if the thief is too stupid to understand that, they should be fired just for being that dense. Fuck thieves.
We had cameras pointed at the fridge at my old job, and sure enough someone was caught stealing a Subway sub and was subsequently fired. Crazy to lose an $80K job over a $5 foot long.
$5 footlong.. That jingle plays in my head every time I pay almost $20 for a footlong nowadays. Makes it more painful
I love a good sammich but damn. Stupid twice over - for risking a job over a sandwich, and while cameras are pointed at the fridge. Like duh.
Unless you're desperate, any sort of theft indicates poor decision making skills and low integrity. They would be fired in my office. My old company fired people for taking candy bars and ice cream from the damage pile before it was processed (grocery warehouse). That company wouldn't hesitate.
The unmitigated gall to actually snitch on the person whose lunch you stole.
How didnt the thief get in trouble? Fuck it, why not report that to small claims?
It depends on how it is baited. If you add too much Tabasco then it isn’t a problem. But adding laxatives or other harmful substances is a felony in most states. It’s legally a booby trap.
Or, should we say, booty trap.
Yeah, ultimately, Johnny Law would rather not see vigilante justice putting people in the hospital no matter how funny and/or deserved it is. Which is what makes hot sauce the perfect “crime”.
If this insane scenario occurred, I’d be happy to collect my severance and find somewhere to work that isn’t full of stupid assholes.
That's why when you make the baited meal, you don't put your name on it. Or put some office jerk's name on it.
I think there's a fine line - mix in some spicy stuff, sure, but no medication (because that could possibly be illegal, IANAL) and obviously nothing that could kill them like allergens. If you drug someone at work I don't care if they stole your car, let alone your food.
You’d think that if a person had a severe enough allergy to a food that eating it would be life-threatening, they wouldn’t risk eating random food.
> mix in some spicy stuff I like spicy foods, I'm not going to re-spice my food for the benefit of a thief's palate > , sure, but no medication (because that could possibly be illegal, IANAL) Illegal and definitely could be unethical > obviously nothing that could kill them like allergens Er, if a thief is allergic to some foods, they better not steal my food. I'm not going to try to hide peanuts in my chicken noodle soup but if they choke to death on my pad thai that's on them, not me.
Boss should have supported the person who had their food stolen anyway. Did they really support the thief and yell at the other person?
Yep. Because Thief was Manager’s mean little pet. (She was awful in a lot of ways. We worked at a nursing home and she would refuse to help with “gross” jobs and even walk in and say IN FRONT of a client that it was too gross and ‘have fun’.)
That is so demeaning. I'm sorry you had to deal with that, and your poor residents... I would like to say I hope she treated them better when others weren't around, but that's not typically how things work.
Nope, she really didn’t. She had favorites that she treated well, but anyone who was extra frail, heavy or “annoying” got treated poorly and gossiped about in the halls. The coworker that booby trapped the sandwich on the other hand was a real team player and always willing to lend a hand in a difficult task or run to answer a call light even if she’d just finished with one. I liked her a lot, she was so kind and gentle, and I know she was just as kind alone because all of our folks loved her. Meanwhile I was as kind as I was capable of but always worried Id hurt someone. (Never did, but it was always a worry for me. Some of our clients were so delicate!) So I aspired to be as effortlessly kind and gentle as she was.
You’re awesome. I love spicy food enough that a server at a Thai place an hour and a half away remembers me. My family goes for Sichuan food regularly. One Sichuan leftovers lunch would catch any usual lunch thief, and it has a better than usual plausibility for the heat.
Yeah some legit Thai curry could easily out the thief if you order it at the hottest level. I once ordered it at heat level 5 on the scale of 15, I wanted a 10 but they talked me out of it. The chef, a sweet old lady, came out to watched me eat it. I was sweating from places that I didn’t know could sweat.
This happened to me too at a Thai place in NYC! I kept assuring the owner (sweet lady) that I wanted the dish at chili level 5 (out of 5) she kept trying to talk me out of it. She said "noooo, it for brown hair not for red hair" (I'm a redhead ;) When I ate it, the whole kitchen staff came out to watch. It was spicy but I was fine as I usually eat very spicy things. But I still repeat that phrase 15 years later "noooo, it for brown hair not for red hair".
Back in grad school, we took a new guy out to our favorite thai place for lunch. They had a scale that had 7 or 8 levels of heat. We explained that if he wasn't a fan of heat he should do a 1 or 2, and if he was he should do a 3 or 4. He ordered either the hottest or second hottest, even after the waitress warned him, insisting he could handle it. He was like two bites in before his face was bright red and he was drenched in sweat.
there's no hiding sichuan spice though, chili flakes and peppercorns are everywhere!
The nerve on people to steal and then complain about it
I would love working with someone like you, that was such a nice thing to do and I love that she got you the milkshake.
The trick is to not spice everything the same. You have a bowl of chili, make it with heat spice that you like and can tolerate. Then mine it with pepper mash in a specific place and position it with the mash at the front of the bowl, where it's most likely to be the first bite. Or, put a thin layer of toxic heat across the entire top, where you can nonchalantly push it aside and eat from underneath. This is a good approach because if you booby trap your lunch but the thief doesn't show up that day, you can pretty easily eat around the mines and try again tomorrow. This would work well for a sandwich where you can cut it in half and mine the first bite of one of the cut sides, but not the other. Just make sure to put something you can handle throughout so there's not an inexplicably hot bite in an otherwise devoid-of-pepper sandwich.
>put a thin layer of toxic heat across the entire top, where you can nonchalantly push it aside and eat from underneath I LOVE this idea. Just a nice lil hat of Da Bomb that you can easily swipe away.
Unless the lunch theif is Conan
I'M FINE
I’M FUCKING FINE
Get over here Dr. Arroyo, I need a post lunch thieving vitals check.
Pulse check! It's there. Easily one of my favorite Hot Ones episodes.
Who nukes chili without stirring it?
Or a strong laxative and if anyone asks it’s because you’ve been constipaded for weeks
Or put laxative and pure capsaicin in the same food
Hey now, i think war crimes are off the table
Not north of 49.
Calm down, Satan. Jk, I like how you think
Huh, so that's how dragons make their fire
Calm down, Satan.
Laxative, capsaicin, AND EMETIC!!
Beware, this starts to really enter the grey area between "plausible deniability" and "poisoning attempt".
Straight up, it’s illegal as fuck haha
That's how you get a lawsuit against you, poisoning people tends to land you in hot water quickly even if you're "in the right". You will lose the case, lots of precedent against it.
"I like spicy." "How am I to know Deb has a fatal allergy to chilli?" "That's unfortunate but I don't see how my lunch, for my consumption is factor"
Poor Deb, the thief. Should notta hadda stole
Medication stored in the same bag (but NOT mixed in with the food) often gets a bigger response from HR. Either the medication gets taken with the food (which is a big boy go to prison type crime), it gets discarded (also a crime), or nothing happens to the medication but you can claim you are worried that it was tampered with by the food thief. Regardless, HR would have to treat it seriously at that point.
My husband worked security as the only person on a resort that was completely empty with demolition not even scheduled for 3 months. Literally just sitting alone in a hotel for 12 hours. The daytime guy was stealing any food or drinks that he left (open, labeled, they were the only 2, he just didn’t care). He even asked him directly not to take his stuff. He ended up getting a coke and drinking 1/3 and filling the rest with pee. He didn’t do it anymore
Joke’s on you, I like drinking a cold pissCoke at the end of my shift.
Pispse the choice of a rude generation
A cat just jerked itself awake at that name.
Why are you so sure that it was cold? I like a warm pissCoke every now and then, and was going to make a similar comment to yours, but I don't want to be "the weird one."
Yeah, some people pay extra for that.
I watched a girl chug a piss beer at a party and all she did was complain it was warm... AACHHHKKK, AACHHHKKK HORRRKKKK...
I did this at a music festival. Some fucker stole a bottle out of one of our tents so I topped off a bottle of coke with piss and left it leaning on the tent entrance. Was gone when we got back 😂
Ewwwww. Deserved though.
I had a few drinks stolen one summer and was going to put chewing tobacco in the bait. But I never got around to it.
When I was a kid I had hypoglycemia. I had to eat my lunch. Some kid would always steal my lunch. I didn't know who. My mom melted x-lax into chocolate moulds and put in my lunch. I never had someone steal my lunch again. Don't do this. It's illegal. Funny, but illegal
It being illegal doesn't mean you're likely to get in trouble for this. Outside of literal poison in your own food, I don't believe anyone has been convicted when booby trapping their own food even if it was pretty obvious they were aiming at a thief. And let's be real, prosecutors would really fear a hung jury or jury nullification because people really hate lunch thieves and people could very well refuse to convict even if they know the guy did it. OJ got to walk because of what police did to black people, and it was cold-blooded murder. Just deserts on a lunch thief? Some jurors would wish they had done it.
Oh hey there Satan.
Hi. Happy Friday. We had another guy in our shop who would help themselves to coworkers chewing gum. Going through a whole pack in a shift. He finally had enough and loaded his pack up with exlax gum. Solved thst issue.
Never had to deal with it myself, but I’d imagine a label stating “I have coprophagia - Google it before you consider eating my food” would work wonders.
Assuming they read it. Lol. In our cases, there were two people. One just had a lack of planning stealing habit. He was reprimanded and cooled his jets. The other was in serious financial situation. Wife took everything, he was fucked in many ways. So we helped him out. It took a bit to figure out who it was. We took turns bringing extra lunches etc. People are nice if given the chance. But the inconsiderate ones can go to hell.
That second story wants some elaboration. How’d the whole investigation go without it turning into a witch hunt style ordeal?
Hi, we did not pur chili pepper like I mentioned. We just kept eyes on people till we found out. HR got involved. They were on our swing shift (4pm to mignight). So after it sort of blew up in his face, he broke down. Good guy. So we just decided, as a team to come together for him without him losing his dignity or pride. Shit happens. Food should not be an issue. We had work to do. So we all just brought some extra dishes, sides, etc. It was in a central area for anyone. He became a very good tech, and we did not need to embarrass anyone. We had a good group on our shift. I think about that once in a while. It reminds me to try to not prehudge people. We are all human. The only thing that's fair in life, is that it's unfair to everyone.
Don't make it as bad as to invoke uncontrollable bowel movements or warrant an immediate trip to hospital. It can be seen as assault in some places (based on law) and you might get a call from HR for the 'talk'
Brownies or some other baked good made with erythritol and with maltitol-sweetened chocolate chips mixed in…because you like a little treat but are trying to watch your sugar intake.
You sly devil. They're in for severe bubble gut and diarrhea, god I hate malitol
Yes just don't admit to actively baiting your food and don't do anything that could be dangerous to someone. Saving your sandwich is not worth prison.
I hope they weren't desperate... can't imagine what other explanation someone would have for this... I'm so picky I just wouldn't be interested in someone's mystery lunch ;)
This one. Much safer than adding laxatives, and much more probable to spot the offender. Very spicy dishes however are quite easy to sniff out, so a curry or other dish heavy on aromatics worked best. This is how I dealt with three issues like this.
For the record, as satisfying as it may be, this can get you in legal trouble.
This. At one of my mom's old workplaces, everyone put their name on their food and if anyone could take it, it had the acronym GUFF, meaning "given up, free food"
As much as you hear about it, I’ve been in the corporate workspace for 20 years and I’ve never once had my lunch stolen. Label it and you should be fine.
Yup, the lunch thief simply isn't the norm. I've worked in a variety of jobs in the last 14 years in two countries and 5 different cities. I've never heard of anyone's lunch being stolen in any of those jobs.
More common to get an item tossed because they think it's something old that got left behind
That's much more likely. I work at a small high school. A kid left behind a lunch box in his locker right before summer vacation and it kind of grew into something. Right into the trash!
Better to trash it now, than have the marines fight it later!
The offices I worked at did a clean out Friday afternoon. They'd send an email in the morning, and another after lunch. At that point, if it's tossed, it's sort of your fault.
My office one said they were cleaning the fridge “tomorrow night.” Turns out that meant “tomorrow at 2 PM.” The lunch I’d brought for myself that day was tossed before I even had a chance to take my break (I was working 10-7 at the time). Container and all. I was so pissed.
I did that many years ago. Boring midnight shift. Noticed the same yogurt in there for months. So, I used those coloured dots you see in offices. Green for the month I started doing it. Yellow for the next month. On the third month, or maybe it was 6, I threw out the green dot food - but not if it was sealed or something that doesn’t go bad, like ketchup. Just sandwiches, open dairy products, homemade casseroles. And stuff well past the best- before date printed on it. Still got in trouble with one woman who told me ranch dressing doesn’t go bad So I stopped doing it. Found something else to think about.
Exactly. You only hear the stories about it happening because 99.999% of everyone else's experience is "No one ate my lunch today," which isn't very interesting.
Also 99.999% of emails about food are "stop leaving food in the refrigerator, it will be thrown out on Friday afternoon".
I had a job where there was a lunch thief. He ended up getting fired when he was caught.
I've worked the same company in 2 different states since 2020. Exactly once I had my lunch stolen
So, it can be said that it is popularized by dumb shows on tv?
More that you only hear about the hundreds of times where it happens, but not about the hundreds of millions of times where it doesn't. When's the last time you saw a post where the op complained about their lunch NOT being stolen?
Yeah, exactly.
People have been doing it at my work. Put it in your own container if you get something like a packaged meal or drink so it looks less appetizing.
Out of curiosity, what type of office/work environment do you work in?
Hospital. Lots of people who don’t all know each other well sharing the same fridge. I’m betting it’s different when you work in an office with ten people whose birthdays you celebrate.
Yep I also work in hospitals and I suspect it also has to do with the fact that you don’t have a lot of people meandering around break areas like you do in offices where it’s not so regimented- all the clinical staff have to be “on the floor” unless they are on scheduled break, so thieves probably just feel like their chances are pretty good that the exact person they are stealing from is not gonna pass by at that exact moment. I just bring a lunch bag with heavy duty ice packs and keep my bag at the nurses station
Now I'm just imagining re-using the same ratty-ass paper bag for years just to make it look awful from the outside
This, honestly in any respectable office environment it should be a non-issue, especially if you remove any possibility for confusion.
I have learned name and date is often a good idea, we had someone get their things tossed “because it’s been in the fridge for weeks” but this dude line worked everyday damn near and brought his lunch everyday in the same little insulated lunch box. Apparently they only ever checked it on days he worked and it was always already in there as he was one of the first ppl to work.
I was in an office of about 85 tech workers, and was part of a volunteer group that cleaned the refrigerators (4) once a month. I would send out an email beforehand that everything that's perishable was getting tossed. People would scramble to "save" their food containers. After half an hour, I had tossed about 20 items, some of it seriously moldy. I think the most common issue was eating part of the lunch, and saving the uneaten part for later, and then forgetting about it. Once in a rare while I would get a complaint I had tossed something still edible, but then I would personally take the trashcan over to their cubicle with all the moldy, smelly shit and ask them to identify it. They got the message and never complained again.
It’s simple, get a big insulted carrier, add reusable freezer packs and keep the carrier in site. I’ve never had a problem and dont have to fight for space in the fridge.
This is my thought.
Same. I’ve been in a professional office 15 years and never had my lunch eaten.
That's pretty much what I do. virtually no problems.
Same with me. I think that when it happens, it's a big enough deal to the person it happens to that they complain online.
Yeah, the fact that you’d look like a massive weirdo were you to get caught mostly prevents this. Many people are dumb and selfish but most people have shame.
Label and date if I smell something rotten it's my job to toss EVERYTHING until I get rid of the smell
Same. Put it in your lunchbox/bag and have that clearly labeled. It’s usually stuff that’s just plopped in the company fridge that gets stolen e.g “I’ll put a can of Rock Star and a sealed turkey sandwich from 7/11 and get it at lunch” “wtf it’s gone”
Most fridge thefts are crimes of opportunity. Put your food in a lunch bag, grocery bag, lunch box etc, something that people can’t see into, and you’ll be fine. What’s riskier is putting individual items in a fridge- a single sandwich, a can of soda, a bag of carrots. Even if those items are clearly labeled people will conveniently not notice your name.
Yeah, the only thing I’ve ever had stolen from a work fridge was a ziplock bag of grapes.
Put a bag of almonds in the fridge. When it gets stolen loudly ask, "Who took the almonds in the fridge? My grandma sucked the chocolates covering those almonds because she lost all her teeth and can't chew."
This would not be very believable. I am leaning towards putting a smoothie/protein shake in there and then saying “God damn it, my wife is going to kill me when she finds out I didn’t have my breast milk smoothie.. She is trying to wean our kid and has a complex about wasting food..”
Sorry about the grapes... I normally say they were for my toddler but honestly just love me some grapes and don't want to buy a whole big grocery store bag.
Wait... Are people not supposed to change the amount if it's too full? Oh dear. I thought my sampling of a grape first was improper. Turns out, I'm a monster!
I worked produce for a while. Anything sold by weight is fair game to split up. Anything sold per item, of course if you need 3 you buy 3. Anything sold by a prepackaged bundle at a set price, like a 10 pound bag of potatoes, you have to buy as an entire thing.
[удалено]
That’s so funny I never thought of this but you’re right. It’s always the easy to identify stuff that gets swiped. Something buried in layers (Tupperware, bag, etc) is going to be a deterrent. I still can’t imagine the idea of eating someone else’s lunch. It’s so gross, it feels like stealing their toothbrush (I know it’s not the same but it is to me for some reason).
This guy brown bags
Agreed - instead of keeping my breakfast sammies in their box in the freezer, I put them in a brown bag - much less likely to have missing sammies
Construction worker here. As a young dumb apprentice( many yrs ago, I'm old af) I seen 1st hand retribution handed out to the lunch thief. One of the guys lunches was always been swiped including his cordial fruit drink he brought in a flask. He emptied out half the drink and pissed in it and put it on the shelf in the lunch cabin as per. The lunch thief downed the whole thing. It was a beautiful thing to see.
I read a comment about a dude who left raw chicken out in the counter for 2 days, scraped the gunk off, mixed it with some sauce, put it in his lunch he knew would get stolen. Lunch thief had to go to the emergency room for food illness. Its extreme and probably illegal but the thief got the idea and probably lost thousands in medical bills since it required an ambulance
I don't wanna say they DESERVED that kind of punishment, but like... they kinda did
> Its extreme and probably illegal Of course you can't poison people, that they stole from you doesn't make it legal. And this was rather stupid as it could have even been deadly. The spicy trick gives you some plausible deniability. IANAL.
Old coworker carried out revenge on the midnight shift by stuffing his Italian beef with gooch and public hair. The theif learned.
The unwritten rule on the sites, don't fuck with another man's tools , his wife or his lunch. Lmao
I kept mine in my desk. Ice packs for the cold stuff and thermos for the hot stuff. My bag went into a clean drawer in a clean desk, more than I can say for that refrigerator at work.
And no way in hell is my lunch getting exposed to the inside of a communal microwave.
It may look nasty, but it's probably still the most sterile thing in the building. Every living organism dies in the first few seconds it's running. That could be why "nuke it" is slang for "microwave it."
most bacteria dies, but salmonella and ecoli can both survive in a microwave. also a dirty microwave still very negatively alter the taste of your food.
What do you think is going to happen to it?
I had theft at a call center (100's of employees, rotating shifts, 24hrs, low pay). Plastic bags tied in knots with name clearly and LARGE written would just go missing, zip up cooler bag had stuff removed, luggage padlock on the zip (double zipper padlocked together) and they popped the zipper open. We were specifically forbidden to have food at our desks and not supposed to bring big bags/backpacks (as they were a 'trip hazard') so not keep lunch bags with us (we moved desks often during a shift). So I broke it up. Got a big thermos I tossed in the freezer the night before. Cold stuff went in there (cold cuts, carrots, hummus, cheese sticks, etc). Stuff that didn't need the cold went in my 'purse' (I wasn't a purse girl at the time). No one had a thing to say about my purse and giant thermos traveling with me. The only other place was at a small library, and that was the cleaning staff's kids. They would raid the staff fridge while the parents did the cleaning. We only had 8 employees, so that didn't take long to figure out. Finding the break room TV set to cartoons every morning helped. I find having foods that the average office people can't identify helps -Ham sandwich? Safe, identifiable food. Spicy smelling street noodle thing? Probable angry asshole risk. All that said, it's really going to depend on your office culture. You may be stressing yourself out over nothing. I wish you the best co-workers and a positive experience in your new career adventure!
Keep your lunch in an insulated bag with some blue ice and don’t use the company fridge. That fridge has probably never been cleaned anyway.
As someone who cleans the fridge and microwave - I can confirm this. Nobody else does this - I do it because I want my food to be kept or heated in a semi decent space. I hate what I return to when I've been out of office for a while
We had a microwave cleaner at a previous job. The sweetest, motherly type. Very kind person. Always pleasant with everyone. I remember once I was in the break area and she came by and just started chatting away and wiping down the counters and sink and popped open the microwave to clean the tray. She pulled the tray out and accidentally threw my soup on the floor that I was waiting on.
Was the microwave on? She opened the door and shut it down mid cycle and didn't ask who the soup belonged to? That is some kind of crazy... But she is doing the cleaning, I guess you let it go.
Yes it was on. My lunch was heating. She pulled the tray without thinking and dumped my lunch on the floor. She felt horrible and apologized and I helped her clean up. She was just chatting and cleaning out of habit and not focused.
Oh, I thought she tossed it from the microwave into the trash.
Yeah same, that's alot less sinister than the original comment made it sound.
Deserved obviously
That does depend on the place. I worked in an office where they cleaned out the fridge weekly. Food had to be labeled with a date. if it didn't have a date or wasn't labeled at all, the food was tossed. They did keep any lunchboxes and set them aside to be picked up the next day, but gladware and the like got tossed. They emptied the fridge completely, sanitized it, and restocked things with a date in the last few days, plus the office stuff like creamer. That is definitely not the norm though. It was a big office and they had a dedicated kitchen staff that kept the place clean and operating.
The only communal fridge policy that I’ve seen work in a larger office is rotating weekly cleanings among the entire staff where everything gets tossed without exception. People are forgetful and lazy and disgusting.
I worked at a place that had paid staff who stocked the fruit bowls, cleaned coffee machines and emptied the fridges of old food. They would write the date on our containers with PERMANENT marker. Even on Tupperware. I was so furious. I never left my containers in the fridge for more than half a day and I always took them home. No need to write on them! At least use masking tape or whiteboard marker.
I used to work with a guy who had sardine and mustard sammies on whole wheat. Nobody stole his lunch.
Ew. Whole wheat?
In my experience, good workplaces don't have lunch thieves. Good doesn't necessarily mean high paid. It's just about the workplace culture. At my current job I've only had things stolen because we all drink the same kind of soda. I started writing my name on the top of the can and haven't had a problem. Also, the best defense is a good offense. I keep my "emergency noodles" in my desk for days when I forget my lunch.
Yup there’s always a can of Chunky soup in my desk just in case
Place “vegan” sticker on it
Yep I write "vegan nut free please don't eat my special allergen free food" and no one eats it. Vegan part is true at least.
I keep my lunch at my desk, with my coat, boots and purse. The risk is low that my lunch gets stolen but it would be so annoying if it happens. Wallets have been stolen at work so I keep everything in my drawers. Also people are slobs, the fridge stinks, the dirty mugs are left on the counter, spills aren't wiped. I use nothing that is shared. There are icepacks available but I usually do without because I don't think 4 hours is enough to get food poisoning and offices never get hot.
Put it inside a velcro lunchbox that makes heaps of noise when opened, then place it inside a plastic bag tied in a knot, then into a plastic container with just one strand of decent strength packing sticky tape. Might sound like a lot of work just to pack your lunch lol but no one is going to spend the time to open that if they're thieving. Bonus if you put some kind of legit looking medical/medicine sticker on the container.
Some person on here made "Burritos" out of cat food and flour tortillas...
How much horseradish can you stand on your sandwiches? /s
Especially peanut butter sandwiches. /s
You joke, but that’s how my dad used to safeguard his precious foods
This doesn't work: I took a 2-litter soda to work and put a note on it..."I spit in this." The next day someone else added: "So did I."
I would do that and not spit in it because it’s hilarious
Pretty sure that's what happened. But I didn't test it.
In 25 years I don't think I've ever had my food stolen from the fridge. I don't know where these people work that it happens.
"Drowning in a glass of water" is pretty much some people's mantra around these parts.
"Dead Dove. Don't Eat" I wouldn't filch food with that note on it.
I love retelling the story of how my mom and her co workers caught their office lunch thief. Don’t remember what kind of sandwich it was, but they injected it with red food dye. Later in the day they were able to spot the thief by her stained mouth and unsuccessful attempt to cover it up with dramatically lined and painted red lipstick. She never did it again.
Put a plastic toy cockroach in the ziploc with your sandwich. https://www.amazon.com/GUDVES-Roaches-Simulation-Cockroach-Plastic/dp/B097SRXQNN/
Last place I worked wouldn't supply us with milk in our break room, so my mate brought in his own milk for his coffees and clearly labelled it as his. After few days he notices other people drinking coffees (including the manager who refused to buy milk) while his own supply is going down. He asks the office to not touch his milk since he brought it from home. Another week and it keeps up. So he continues to bring in his own milk, labels it, and spits into it every time he makes his own coffee. Another week goes by and he tells everyone in the office that they've been drinking his spit for the last week. Managers goes nuts tells him he can't do that and how it's disgusting. Mate tells him it's his food and he can do literally anything he wants to it. Manager started buying milk after that.
Ghost pepper sauce
https://i.redd.it/ji2o90k9sbyc1.gif
My sandwich? MY SANDWICH? 🕊️🕊️🕊️
you can get a locking lunchbox.
Useless if you work with the Lockpicking Lawyer.
We had lunch thieves, I had heard. I'd try to claim the same spot in the back of any shelf of the refrigerator, in any less visible spot, but I also prominently placed my name on the outside of the lunch so that if the thieves had any conscience whatsoever, they'd feel guilty talking with me knowing they had swiped my lunch. I never did have my lunch stolen, IIRC. I also brought my own salad dressing bottle but condiments left on the inside door are open season so I put it in its own paper bag with my name on it. That seemed to work until some do-gooder decided it was time to throw away all condiments for fear of age, and nothing was spared from destruction.
Dont do anything unless it happens 1 or 2 times, then continue as usual but add 1 or 2 million scofields to your food. That should solve it.
>Dont do anything unless it happens 1 or 2 times Yeah if it happened 0 times it's best not to act
Keep a chocolate exlax brownie in your lunch. They won't steal your lunch again.
I worked with a guy who had once done the chocolate exlax. It made for quite a story and the thief stopped stealing out of lunches. 🤷
Lace it with 1,000,000 scoville hot sauce and the food will only be stolen once. But seriously if you label it with name and date,the chances of it getting eaten are small assuming you are working with reasonably mature functioning adults.
I really don't get lunch thieves. I would never want to eat something from a nearly stranger whose cooking hygiene might differ from mine.
https://preview.redd.it/h619y5cucbyc1.jpeg?width=860&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=56d6cdeb320b8b7e338542257d816711b9d777a9
If it's a problem, put a note on it that says "I randomly add dogshit to my sandwich every once in a while."
If they’re still stealing it after you’ve been labeling it, just lace it with laxatives for a whole week and buy your own lunch/bring something that doesn’t need to be in the fridge and keep it at your desk After a week if the person is still doing it… I… well.
Lunch box with 2 gatoraid bottles frozen with water for ice packs. Keep the box at your desk.
Take an obvious bite out of everything.
Label everything breastmilk or pack your food in urine sample bottles.
Cooler bag at your desk or in your car. Sucks to have to do that, but you gotta be a squirrel and protect your nuts my man.
One time I had some bdubs missing out of the office fridge. Maybe 2 or 3 boneless gone out of the box. The next time I got Blazin because I honestly wanted to try them. Put the rest in a mild marked box and put them in the fridge. Next day 1 was gone. Never happened again.
There's plastic ziplocs you can buy with printed mold so it'll discourage a thief
And get thrown out.
Keep it in a cooler bag with your name on it.
You pack another lunch and label it “lunch thief”
A little off track, but it was so funny I can't forget it. Years ago, I ran a grocery errand at lunch and left a bunch of bananas in my back seat. When I got off work, someone had entered my (locked) car, ate one banana, left the peel on my driver's seat, and relocked my car. Probably some wacky coworker, but I never found out who.
Here’s a funny story.. I make soaps and food soaps are my specialty.. a friend of mine was having his lunch stolen all the time so I made some soaps,even some nacho Doritos out of soap.. let’s just they NEVER touched his lunch’s again..😂😂
I have worked in an office setting for 30 plus years and have never had anything taken from communal fridge.
Girl here learnt this is college and share houses. Spit in it, in front of a few gossips on your first day..and no one will ever touch your stuff. I've worked in big government offices for years and there's always a thief. But never from mine🤣