How to stop food stealing at work?
 

Here's the deal. I've got a thing for OJ in the morning. It helps wake me up and I just plain like the stuff. My office has a community fridge where people keep their sack lunches, cold snacks, etc. I buy a 6-pack of single serve orange juice about once a week or so and keep it in the fridge at work so I can have one in the morning with my breakfast. (I usually eat and work at my desk.)

As of lately, someone in the office has taken to assuming that my OJs are for everybody. The last 2 packs I've bought have wound up with 1 or 2 OJs gone before I get a chance to drink them. This pisses me off. You didn't buy them, what makes you think they are yours to drink?!?

Now, instead of flying off the handle like I'd love to do at the guily party, I know that won't get me anywhere. Plus, I have no idea who it is. A little investigation would help, but that's not possible while everybody is here.

I also want to make sure I handle the situation correctly. I KNOW that if I send out an email saying please stop drinking my OJ, then everybody will turn on me and start saying "Don't touch his OJ! He'll get mad at you!" I'll turn into the standard kitchen office joke. (Yes, I know, how childish of my co-workers, but I promise it'll happen.) Also, what if its one of the execs taking my OJ? Offending them isn't good, as I value my job more than offending an exec just to keep someone from stealing my OJ.

So how do I handle this? Should I send an email? If so, how should I word it? Talk to my manager? Or just go desk to desk looking for an empty OJ bottle and confront the person right then and there?

Thanks for your help fellow TFP'ers!

How about putting the OJ in a plain brown bag so nobody knows exactly what's in it?

The brown paper bag would probably work.

I never understood why people would do that. You know you didn't bring it in, and you know damn well your company isn't stocking the fridge.

And cartman is probably right that if he said something directly, it would turn into one big joke. "Oohhh it's OJ man"

Try the paper bag and see how that works :)

Putting it in a bag with your name on it is the best way to go

How would you react if you got an email about stopping doing something that you weren't doing in the first place? I wouldn't send the email.

i agree, taking something from the fridge is one thing, the person could just be nieve, but out of someone bag that is named is quite another.

I agree with the paper bag idea. Put your name on it so everyone knows it's yours and not community OJ. If someone continues to steal it, place a note on the bag explaining that the OJ is yours and not everybodys.

If the person STILL steals the OJ, set up a hidden camera to catch them in the act and post the video with the guys/gals email addy. Works every time.

The plain brown bag is good, but I would try just putting your name on the six-pack and seeing if that helps.

I had the same problem with roommates. And when I asked one of them why he was filching my cheese, he said, "Well, I _saw_ it in there. And I didn't remember buying it. But I thought it _might_ be mine. So..." shrug and helpless grin. I then put labels on all my food, which pissed him off, because he could no longer give himself an excuse to eat somebody else's food. But he did stop eating it.

So to sum up, they're taking it because they can justify that it _might_ be the company's OJ. They really know better, but they're bending logic to get what they want. Don't let them.

We had a security camera installed in the breakroom. I am not sure if it was because of that, but it has stopped some people from taking things that do not belong to them.

I keep all my cold items in an insulated lunch box at my desk. I have two ice packs that I put in the freezer in the morning, and when I leave at night, I put the packs back in my lunch box. They are cold in the morning for me to drink!

Oh my god. My boyfriend was telling me about the hardcore guys at the place where he works. Some guys were stealing this really aggressive guy's (let's call him Bob) food at work. So, one day Bob got tortillas, brought them into the bathroom, and pooped into them. He brought them to work the next day, all wrapped up and 'ready to eat.' Those co-workers got a huge surprise and NEVER ate his food again.

Also, my boyfriend said his boss writes all over the soda container (like, a 12 pack box): THIS IS MY SODA FUCK OFF GET AWAY THIS IS 'NAME HERE's SODA!!!!!

Anyway, if you're not really the aggresive type like that (which not many people are), just do the insulated lunchbox idea. Keep stuff in your desk and away from the people at work.

We had trouble with people stealing lunches out of the fridge (someone even stole a piece of my leftover pizza. Just one piece, not both. ???) so they installed a video camera. It seems to have done the trick, but honestly, can't people just buy their own damn food and keep their hands off what doesn't belong to them?

everyone ate shit out of my lunch at my last job, pissed me off if i showed up for lunch at 4 and half of it was gone.

I say put it in a brown bag that says my fucking OJ back off mutha fucka

I think that just writing your name on each of the cans/bottles would be enough of a deterrent. If you find that that doesn't work, then leaving a note on them asking whoever it is to not drink them, and if it still doesn't work, inform a supervisor.

I'd take a syringe and inject a few cc's of magnesium sulfate (epsom salt in water) into them. You'd know who took it bacause they'd be running to the bathroom every 5 minutes.

If people have individual trashcans, just take a little stroll around and glance into each one until you find the perpetrator. Then kick that person in the face.

damn...thats just....damn. that's hardcore. damn.


HAHA!!!
sir, I like the way you think!



I'll try the brown paper bag thing first. Reports on its sucess forthcoming. stay tuned batfans.

And thanks for the tips one and all!!!

Just tell people that YOUR O.J. is the killing type.

hehe...

Leave a note that says "One of these OJs has been poisoned"

....

(chances are, the next day there'll be a sign that says "Now two of them are" ;) )

sorry i'd be bringing a new OJ in every day instead of having them sit unprotected overnight and thru the day.

Right. I would in some way sabotage them so that whoever was stealing them got an unpleasant surprise (let the OJ spoil, inject something into it....nothing harmful, but something that tasted bad or stained the tongue or something)

This happens at every office, and it's BS. I would never even consider doing something like this.

Bring a bunch of OJs in as usual, but spike 'em with Vodka. When you notice one's gone missing, see if you can track down the guilty party and bust 'em for drinking on the job. If he tries to pin it on you, tell the boss, "are you gonna believe that? can you smell his breath?" Nobody'll fuck with you again.

I put my items in a bag with my name written on it in large letters. Nothing like a claim of ownershp to warn off people. It causes some to pause when they know the person from whom they are pilfering.

I can't quite understand why people steal lunch out of fridges at work. My office has the same problem.

Do they honestly think the fridge is for everyone to just eat out of like at home?

I mean when you go home there is food in there cause you bought it not because when you close the door food just appears?

lol

Do NOT do anything bad to the food. If someone gets sick because of something you added, then you are liable and can be sued. Revenge isn't worth jail time.

It may be an honest mistake, particularly if there isn't a sign indicating ownership. A post-it note goes a long way, so does a bag or a box.

If all else fails, stop buying cartons of OJ. A resealable container is less expensive in the long run, and you really can't pilfer from it.

What do you think about getting your very own minifridge?

That guy is my hero.

Put them in a metal lock box

Another thing you can do is take masking tape, and just cover up all 6 tops of the OJ's and take a sharpie and write on them "THIS IS NOT FOR THE TAKING!!!!!!"

If it happens again- take a high powered gun to work and while holding your 6 pack go from desk to desk asking politely (although in a high pitched strained voice), "HEY! care for one of <b>MY</b> OJ's?"

Make sure you are sweating profusely and have a crazed look on your face.

"Are you <b>SURE</b> now?" Grinning sadistically.

Chances are it will never happen again...

at university my friend had some bad house mates that would aways eat his food, he masturbated into the mayo jar and mixed it up, the other roommates ate it all semster, he never told them, but he got a good feeling everything one of the made a sandwich. i say do the brown bag thingy, any type of revenge could make your office envoirnment uncomfortable if it goes wrong.

Personally I would either buy extra OJ and let the people at work drink them (but make sure some are saved for you) or I would find out who is stealing them and politely ask that they ask you before taking an OJ.

I'm the sharing type :)

Simple: Pour the juice into a clear plastic container and just put a label across it with the words 'SAMPLE.'

That's all. Believe me- you won't have to specify what kind of sample it is.

See if you can bring in your own personal fridge.

Holy shit! Now I have to go throw up my sandwich...

My roommate in college once left half a pizza in a box in our room, and wrote on the box in sharpie: "Spiders crawled on. Yucky. Gross."

It worked! Nobody touched a slice! I knew there were no spiders, and I wouldn't have eaten his pizza anyway, but the thought of spiders was a little extra incentive for me. ;)

The brown bag with your name on it is the best way to go.

Alternately, if there are a number of people in the office who enjoy the same beverages, you might take up a weekly collection and buy them in bulk. The office manager where I worked before I went freelance would collect money at the weekly company meeting and buy cases of soft drinks at Sam's Club.

haha my teacher friend got so fed up with ppl stealing his timbits (little sphere donuts) everytime he'd leave it on the table for a couple mins so he bought a pack, wiped all of them carefully all over the toilet, and left them on the table again.
what d'ya know, they were gone again.
he got a huge kick outta it :D baha

well my idea I got from my dad an his days in medical school.... gengine violet a extream bright violet dye thats safe to consume in small quanitys and will turn anything it touchs voilet.... for months hehe trick is finding it just go to a hospital an ask some young lab worker an tell him what its for, most likely he will be more than happy to help hehehehheheh

Lassus, I saw an episode of M*A*S*H where they played that one to catch a thief. They didn't actually use the dye, but they made the thief think they had. :lol:

Dust the drinks with UV powder then take a UV light around to see who has the glowing hands.

I had this same problem with a group of friends I used to hang out with. The trick I used was to spit on my food or in my drinks. I could care less being that it's my spit (as long as it's just saliva). After several demonstrations my friends never bothered my food or drinks again.