How do you react if you catch someone at work taking your lunch from the refrigerator?

Stab that bitch!

then make them pay for your lunch

I would ask them what they’ve got for lunch today and see how they respond. Then, if they say they don’t really know yet or something, I would bet them that they’ve got whatever is actually in the lunch. By then, they should have put it back or admitted they were going to take it.

I don’t think they would do that…first of all it’s labeled with my name and secondly there are private notes on the napkin from Alex..and I hope they see them and get all sorts of embarrassed

Do people really do that? I thought it was the fodder for comedians and jokes.

That’s just shameless. I’d try not to be accusatory. I’d maybe say, “you got the wrong lunch, that one is mine.”

Don’t touch my noms.

@jmah priceless

That is totally unacceptable, in this situation it is perfectly acceptable to go insane. I would yell incoherently and throw things for a while, later I would go urinate in his desk.

First you get some baby oil. then squirt it into a big puddle on the floor. Strip down to your underoos and begin writhing in the liquid. Make shrieks and moans of all pitches. finally crawl out of the room on all fours while continuing the shrieks and moans. Make sure that the offender witnesses the spectacle. Usually this display of disapproval will be sufficient to prevent any future conflicts.

@Capt_Bloth and @jaketheripper I want videos and pictures

if it happens chronically, i’d slip some laxatives and/or super hot sauce in my food. problems tend to solve themselves that way.

@eponymoushipster That is what I was thinking…

lol @eponymoushipster

If he’s got used to with it. Take two lunch boxes with you, one full for you and the other empty for him (you may slip in any message in the box). Place the empty one in refrigerator.

lol again @eponymoushipster do you want him repent in toilet?

@prasad as my grandmother says ”If you don’t listen, you’ll feel.”

With utmost compassion. ;-)

I would feel sorry for them. I can’t imagine how bad a person must feel to sink so low as to have to steal food from your workmates. I wouldn’t make them feel any worse.

“Excuse me, but that’s my lunch. Put it back, please.”

Not sure how I’d react, but isn’t theft generally a fireable offense?

I would be pissed,I would find someway to totally humiliate them. I would take pictures, and until I got paid, I would blackmail them. But I like the whole laxative thing. but it is happening to my friends little sister at school. So yes she is mad but there is a reason that this kid is taking lunches. So she just packs two of them everyday.

Offer him or her a free dinner too and ask in a friendly way, Can I get you anything else? After asking these questions I think the person will feel very guilty. So, a kind of left cheek right cheek approach. Might work.

If I caught them in the act, I’d probably just put on my sweetest phony smile and tell them in a voice dripping with sugar that it was mine.

I’m with @aprilsimnel – tell the person it’s mine and ask them to either put it back or hand it to me.

Unless it’s something I really didn’t want to eat anyway. Then I would make them eat it right in front of me.

I would say, “um, that’s mine.” I cannot believe that this happens. If I think it was more than a mistake I might ask around and see if people are having their food dissapear.

Do nothing act like you don’t mind .
Next day however : Take two lunches one you have done awful things to urination , dragged on the floor , rubbed around the toilet bowl etc Put that into the fridge marked clearly with your name . Keep your lunch separate from the fridge or add someone else’s name to it someone they wouldn’t dare touch food from , inform that person you have marked a bag / box with his/ her name just so they do not eat yours. Sit back and enjoy the show :)

Really, though, I’d simply say to him/her “I think that that’s mine”. (Canadians be all non-confrontational).

I think I’d be in too much shock to say anything. Like, literally walk in on them taking it out of the fridge?
I’d so hate to be the lady with the labeled food, but I’d label it from then on. So passive aggressive, I know. I wouldn’t want to stir up trouble at work though.

um, thats my lunch.

Sit down with him for the lunch break. When he asks why you aren’t eating, tell him someone stole your lunch and how much you were looking forward to whatever was in your lunch (that he just ate). Then say, “Can you believe it? It’s so rude” and maintain eye contact for several extra seconds. Then go back to your magazine or whatever. It would be interesting to see his reaction.

I arrange a cage match.

IT HAPPENS – it used to happen all the time where I work, I’ve had many a lunch pilfered…my first reaction was rage, but then I thought that person must not have enough food of their own, so I let it go.
(now if I can only catch the person that’s using my salad dressing out of the fridge… THEN all hell will break loose!)

I have been thinking about this and once I got past the initial feeling being stolen from I decided on this plan of action:

I would pack two sandwiches, fruit and drinks and leave a note asking them to choose the one they wished. I would be interesting to see if a sandwich vanished etc. If so it could be like having a secret pet of sorts. (yes I do seek entertainment in odd places)

First I would build up an immunity to a poison Princess Bride style…

@sandystrachan Or for the ultimate in just guilting them, pack two lunches, label their name on one of them.

“I understand due to being famished that you felt it necessary to abscond with my lunch. That not only makes you a thief, it makes you pathetic. Under normal circumstances I might attempt to forgive you but messing with someone’s food is akin to treachery. If you ever bring your own food to work and I find it, I will be sprinkinling Arsenic on it to add that ‘special flavor’ that you’ve so rightfully earned.”~

touch yourself, then touch your food. It doesn’t really solve anything but its funny

@Supacase ”somebody stole my lunch”, I lurve it!

I forgot to add before: said in my best imitation of Samuel L. Jackson as Jules in Pulp Fiction.

”...and you will know my name is THE LORD when I lay my vengeance upon thee!”

@aprilsimnel his perm is so badass….

It would be a strange breach of protocol, i’d be curious to see how it played out.

You can always try a variant of the beer protection system.

One evening, Frank was drinking at a bar when the bartender came over to tell him that he had a telephone call.

Frank had just bought another beer and he didn’t want anyone else to drink it. So, he wrote a little sign and left it by his beer that read: “I spit in this beer.”

When Frank returned to his bar stool, there was another note beside his beer: “I did, too!”

Could be amusing. Or not.

Charge the expense account with a letter explaining why the company owes you lunch. Name names. That shit will stop real fast.

It does happen, and not necessarily because the person is too poor to afford his or her own lunch. When you work in a first-class company where everyone is very well paid, there’s another reason. I think some folks take advantage wherever and whenever they can, thinking they’re being smart and everyone else is a chump. These are the folks who load up a shopping bag with the free popcorn and soup packets, first aid supplies, and bottled water from the break rooms and take them home. Guess what? After a while, no more free soup packets, and the popcorn and water are in vending machines for a dollar each. Thanks, guys.

@Jeruba But this is stealing a person’s lunch, not the company’s food. I see no difference really because both actions hurt individuals in the long run, and it is never ok to steal in my book (barring extreme circumstance that is not part of this discussion). But, many people feel fine taking from a company, when they wouldn’t directly from an individual, this seems so extreme to me. I mean to take someone’s lunch? That they prepared? I just never could imagine it.

I recall reading a short story (biographical) some years ago about someone who was in such a bad situation that they were dodging their landlord and the only food they could get is what they could steal from work.

I would not like to make someone in those circumstances feel worse – I would want to be really sure that the theft was malicious or smart ass before responding.

If the person has a job I wouldn’t assume they were stealing because they couldn’t afford any food. If they’re stealing they should feel bad about it. If they told me they needed something until pay day I get them some food, but back away from the brown bag. That one’s mine.

@cyndyh If the person has a job I wouldn’t assume they were stealing because they couldn’t afford any food.

Many people have both jobs and debts – sometimes debts that take all of their resources. Single mothers in particular. You might be surprised at the number of people working who cannot feed both themselves and their families.

@DarkScribe : I know what broke is. I have have been a broke single mom. Stealing’s not the way we tend to deal with it.

We simply don’t know the situation of the person stealing. They could be low on cash, they could have something psychologically going on.

@cyndyh I know what broke is. I have have been a broke single mom. Stealing’s not the way we tend to deal with it.

We? You are speaking for all single mothers? Most won’t steal, but with for instance, a sick child and a need to keep working but without funds for meals? I don’t know either, but because it could possibly be such a desperate act – I would not react to it (Other than to offer aid) unless I was truly aware of all the person’s circumstances.

Hey – I’m the big bad atheist here – what has happened to Christian charity?

Don’t call me a christian. There’s no reason to get nasty. :^>

Most people in that situation would ask for help and not steal. Even some folks who would steal wouldn’t steal from individuals at work. You can ask me for help. You can’t steal from me and expect me to not react.

@cyndyh Don’t call me a christian. There’s no reason to get nasty. :^>

Sorry. :)

We react differently – my wife keeps telling everyone that I am a soft touch, but I would rather lose a little than hurt someone who was already down. The few dollars involved are a minor inconvenience to me, stealing food – if it for real hunger – is far from an inconvenience to the person involved. They might be too embarrassed to ask, or feel that it might risk their job.

I’ll just give them the benefit of my doubt and ignore the issue, or if it can be done without offense – offer to help.

@cyndyh at my place of employment we have people that get paid at all levels, some make very little money. One woman was a single mom AND had custody of her sister’s two children because the sister had a drug addiction which lead her to jail. (not saying THIS person was the one who’d pilfered lunches, just giving circumstances)
she worked on my team and I’d see her eating the free soft pretzels that the company puts out in the lunch room every single day for breakfast and lunch… Once I got to know her and learned of her circumstances, I’d help out where I could…“I cooked WAYY too much this weekend “Susie” do you and your kids like lasagna?” she NEVER turned down anything I offered and I suspect it was because she struggled to put food on the table for three children.
if the company didn’t have the free soft pretzels, or if for whatever reason she got to work late and the pretzels were gone… chances are she wouldn’t eat much that day. If it were that case, (though I’m not condoning the act of stealing) I don’t know that I would blame the person for taking food.

@DarkScribe: I hear what you’re saying. It’s good of you to give the benefit of the doubt. It’s just that in my experience that’s not what’s going on. If you bring a simple sandwich and it doesn’t get swiped, but homemade chili or lasagna gets swiped, it’s not hunger.

@christine215: I’ve known folks like that, too. When I was in grad school many of us would show up to talks when there was pizza. :^> I also worked at a restaurant where the grandma who ran the place used to cook lunches for the whole crew. She’d sometimes make extra to send food home with folks for their families. We were always thankful not just for the immediate food, but also because she was teaching us all something about cooking on a shoestring budget. I just think taking advantage of the free stuff is a far cry from stealing.

The last place I worked, once a particular employee had been fired, brown bag lunches never went missing nor were they rifled (although some turned into science experiments because their owners forgot about them). However, those frozen Lean Cuisine things seemed to be viewed by someone on the staff as being free for the taking. Even if you wrote your name on the outside with permanent marker before you put it in the communal freezer it would rarely be there by lunch time.

Oh, well, they are too full of sodium to be healthy anyway.

If you “genuinely” knew that someone was taking your lunch without a real need to do so, just being a smart ass, just load it with laxatives. (And hide all the toilet paper.)

(I can still recall in High School putting about a quarter of a kilo of Epsom salts in the hot water urn in the teacher’s rec room. That was spectacular.)

If someone asked me for help, I would give him or her a twenty (or my lunch) without hesitating. If they stole my lunch, they’d earn my undying contempt.

I’ve been poor too, as in broke and scrounging for months on end without relief. I won’t ever forget what that was like. Never once was I tempted to take something that belonged to someone else. I don’t think that’s at all unusual. I think most people are honest and wouldn’t do such a thing.

@Jeruba I agree. Most people would go hungry rather than take from another. I’m not saying they should, I think people should be able to ask for help, but I think most people don’t. That is why I think there is something phsychologically going on possiby.

I’d say, “na ah ah, hold up there, that’s my lunch you’ve got in your hands”. Where I work, people get into each other’s food ALL the time and it’s not for lack of their own money or abilities, it’s out of laziness and disrespect of their co workers.

… just a mention to all of those who are musing of purposefully setting a food boobytrap for the person who is pilfering… If you’re caught, you could be arrested for assault

@christine215, I would not consider doing such a thing, but your remark is surprising. Why would I be liable to arrest for doing something to my own lunch?

Are you in law enforcement?

@Jeruba She means if you set a booby trap for the person stealing your lunch, and they are injured by it you can be held liable.

I understood what she said, thanks. I was asking why that would be so. There is no apparent intent to harm another if I put a mousetrap inside my own lunch. Only someone who is doing wrong will be caught. Why would I be the guilty party then? Should the kid in Home Alone have been sent to juvie for defending himself and his territory?

I asked if she was in law enforcement because I wondered if this was speculation or fact.

@Jeruba It is illegal to set booby traps. The law is strict on this.

Is it illegal to set up those tire-slashing wrong-way barriers in parking lots?

@Jeruba It is the same premise that if you set up a shotgun to go off when someone breaks in your house, you can be prosecuted for manslaughter. Some of the suggestions here are about deliberately harming another person, by putting noxious substances in the food. You would probably have to provide proof that there were mice present, or a threat of mice with the mousetrap idea.

@Jeruba Do those really count as booby traps? I’ve always seen signs saying not to back up and warning about severe tire damage with those.

@Jeruba No because it is clearly posted what the danger of backing over tire spikes is.
Some of the examples here included putting arsenic in your own lunch. Also bad.

I am not the one defining booby traps. I asked the question about why a person can’t take measures to protect himself that will harm only the person who is violating someone else’s rights or trespassing on his property. I said I would never poison my own lunch. I just want to know what I would be held liable for if I did. Especially if I wrote on the outside: “My lunch. Do not steal. Poisoned.”

@Jeruba You can find the statute that explains it in your local law books, most likely available online someplace.

@Jeruba I asked the question about why a person can’t take measures to protect himself that will harm only the person who is violating someone else’s rights or trespassing on his property.

Unfortunately, depending on where you are, anything that can be described as a “man-trap” (sexist – but legal phrasing) carries severe penalties. They do this to stop an uncontrolled defensive man-trap culture from developing – one that is inevitably going to kill or injure innocent parties as well enforce excessive punishment of miscreants.

Fortunately, they have to prove intent. If I have a lunch loaded with laxatives and claim to suffer from constipation – there isn’t much that anyone can do. ;)

Years ago I was threatened with criminal prosecution for wiring my car with an inverter attached to my vehicle alarm sensor – it gave a startling but non-lethal electric shock to anyone attempting to break into it. Someone hit it with a shopping trolley and suffered the consequences. They claimed to have been “electrocuted” and called the Police.

All right, I am going to go a little further here. Some people do seem knowledgeable enough to speak about the law (which I am not planning on researching; I don’t need to know—I am just curious).

It does not seem to be illegal to possess a potentially harmful substance. For example, there are plenty of garden treatments, cleaning solutions, and other things that carry warnings such as “Do not ingest. Harmful or fatal if swallowed.” People are permitted to make those things, purchase them, and retain them. They are clearly labeled with appropriate wamings.

So why, exactly, would it be illegal to place one of those substances inside something that looks like food, but clearly marked and labeled with the same warnings—“Do not ingest. Harmful or fatal if swallowed.”—and store it in a brown paper bag of the size they call lunch bags? If someone eats it, whose fault is that?

And why, on the other hand, is it not illegal to bait poison traps for animals such as rats and snails?

Hm, what if you put a harmless dead fish in with your sandwich, something easily just taken off (not really plausible, but work with me) is that considered a “booby trap”? It’s not dangerous…just gross.

Tons of hot chili would work. Pour on the salt.

How can you be prosecuted if it was food you prepared for you, and they took it? What’s they guy gonna say? “He knew was habitually stealing his food, so he did something to the food i steal from him, and i got sick…wah”

yeah, that’ll fly~

@eponymoushipster How can you be prosecuted if it was food you prepared for you, and they took it?

Because they are not fools and will see exactly what you have done. They will charge you and hope that a jury will also see what you have done. Banks, in order to use the exploding dye protection technique, had to apply for specific permission – as it is a man-trap.

I don’t agree with it – I do similar things – but I protect myself at the same time. When you realise that burglars have successfully sued for injuries received while burgling a home you have to realise that it is not at all straight forward.

But, what if you write all oer the lunch bag, “eat at your own risk.” This conversation cracks me up, even though there is a serious element to it.

If you like strong-flavored foods, you could always start bringing only those for lunch. I know that when I say that there are anchovies on or in something, or that I have put kim-chi on my food, no one seems willing to touch it.

We had one guy, my supposed supervisor (we called him a stuporvisor because when it came to doing any real work he was always in a stupor) who didn’t steal food, but he was a shnorrer. Anytime you had something good for lunch, there he would be asking for a “taste” or if I had any to share. I discovered that if I responded with “Sure! This is really great because of the anchovies!” or garlic, hot sauce, kim-chee, seaweed, or whatever he would suddenly say “I was just joking. I already ate lunch.” He would them find a reason to leave the lunchroom and go sit in his car for the rest of the break. If you didn’t say something like that he would happily help himself to your food and end up with most of it.

So, is it a “mantrap” to put something strong-flavored in your food? What if you find out the food-stealer is allergic to something and then include it in your lunch but they still steal it? Are you really liable since it was for your own consumption?

Ha! I love this discussion. It makes me want to write a mystery that involves this man-trap idea as an element of the story. Cheers!

@cyndyh It makes me want to write a mystery that involves this man-trap idea as an element of the story.

There are lots of creative ways of setting a trap that leave an element of doubt as to intention. You just have to be careful. Over the years of have heard of quite a few. A wasp’s nest relocated into a mailbox when there was an outbreak of mail theft, a large Python in a car to deter car thieves, a deliberately unlocked garage window with a large container of sump oil immediately below it to entertain burglars.

Nice. :^>

sorry I haven’t answered right away… I’m drawing a parallel to news stories of students lacing cakes for teachers with laxatives, google the words Laxatives and assault and you’ll see a myriad of instances where people have done similar things to “mantrap” foodstuff, each one caught was charged with assault

But the difference is that you would be lacing your own lunch with laxatives, and assuming a reasonable expectation that it will be left alone, as opposed to deliberately lacing a cake with laxatives and then offering it to a teacher. That isn’t the same thing at all.

it’s the intent to do harm, if it can be proven then you’re screwed. the kids baking the cake (or cookies or spiking the coffee, etc) have obvious intent… if you sabotage a lunch… are YOU really going to eat it, or is it your intention for the person who is stealing others lunches to eat it and suffer the ill effects?

Unless you go around and tell your buddies that you are doing it, how would anyone ever know it? You aren’t even encouraging the lunch thief to partake of it or making it logical that they should choose your lunch over someone else’s.

I think that it would be impossible to prove intent.