Breakroom refrigerator theft

DesiHonor · Sep 1, 2016

No I don't steal food, i stay away from the whole area to avoid all of this. I am sure if I skip a meal it won't kill me though. Some of this is cultural, we do have very interesting relationships with food in the US.

Yes... ones that you don't take something that isn't yours. I suppose this may be an interesting relationship with food. Your mentioning of "poisoning" is taken out of context as well. The thief is risking their own health regardless. If I showed up sick, bit into my own food and that person ate it and became infected- I suppose that may be poisoning. LOL

What a ridiculous idea you have for individuals protecting their own food.

AceOfHearts<3 · Sep 1, 2016

I don't think I could ever intentionally make something that will make someone sick. On the other hand I would have no problems making something so disgusting they'll never want to steal from me again.

I once had pixie sticks in plastic not paper tubes when I was in middle school. My sibling kept taking my candy. I dumped the sugar out and filled them back up with salt. Since it was a plastic tube you couldn't tell. I sure made my point :sneaky: :saint:

Asystole RN · Sep 1, 2016

Is it really poisoning when the food is intended for the person putting in the additives? Stealing food is risky business- never know if there's ingredients that will trigger an allergic reaction or
other reaction.

Is the additive placed there for the consumption of the owner? Is the additive a commonly consumed ingredient in that manner?

I can guarantee you that if you added a pharmaceutical ingredient to a food item with full knowledge that someone else could consume it and there were adverse consequences you would be in cuffs. Guarantee it. Poisoning food to prevent theft is poisoning food with full knowledge or the expectation that someone else will consume the food.

Criminal assault if injury is caused. Crazy I know.

SmilingBluEyes · Sep 1, 2016

Happens where I work too. Infuriates me. I had a healthy meal in the freezer. Labeled and dated. One day, I was starving when I got my lunch break. It was gone, along with a lot of others' food. Someone not only got hungry and took one meal, but appeared to have stolen a bunch and taken it home/out of the building.

It's not petty to be pissed off, when, finally I get a break, go to eat, and have nothing there when I was counting on it. I don't think it's a minor annoyance and I think we should call it what it is :"THEFT". It got so bad my boss threatened to fire anyone caught doing this. Ridiculous. Such people are rude and have no consideration for anyone else. It's immature as hell.

I don't get that mentality. I mean, EVERYONE at work HAS A JOB and therefore, can afford to feed their own mouths. Leave your coworkers' stuff alone and bring your own food. Simple as that.

Asystole RN · Sep 1, 2016

Happens where I work too. Infuriates me. I had a healthy meal in the freezer. Labeled and dated. One day, I was starving when I got my lunch break. It was gone, along with a lot of others' food. Someone not only got hungry and took one meal, but appeared to have stolen a bunch and taken it home/out of the building.
It's not petty to be pissed off, when, finally I get a break, go to eat, and have nothing there when I was counting on it. I don't think it's a minor annoyance and I think we should call it what it is :"THEFT". It got so bad my boss threatened to fire anyone caught doing this. Ridiculous. Such people are rude and have no consideration for anyone else. It's immature as hell.
I don't get that mentality. I mean, EVERYONE at work HAS A JOB and therefore, can afford to feed their own mouths. Leave your coworkers' stuff alone and bring your own food. Simple as that.

One day? Was the food there for multiple days?

Places where I have worked they would routinely go through and discard any food items left for longer than X amount of days. Would make sense if suddenly a group of people lost food at once.

SmilingBluEyes · Sep 1, 2016

I am unsure the timeframe, but I do know, 2 days prior, my food was there. Then it wasn't and a lot of others reported the same thing. None of it was out of date and it was all in the freezer. No way did anyone need or have the right to remove any of it. Also, they were being really ignorant, stealing dish soap and entire cases of coffee from the breakroom and even TOILET PAPER from the bathrooms. Yea, it got that bad.

I am glad my boss is taking the stance that theft = firing. Nothing else seems to work. I think, also, it may be ONE person doing it, not a bunch. But the bottom line is, leave others' stuff alone. How hard is that, really? I mean, how were they raised? Did Mom and Dad not cover the part about stealing others' property being wrong?

One day? Was the food there for multiple days?
Places where I have worked they would routinely go through and discard any food items left for longer than X amount of days. Would make sense if suddenly a group of people lost food at once.

Asystole RN · Sep 1, 2016

I unsure the timeframe but I do know, 2 days prior, my food was there. Then it wasn't and a lot of others reported the same thing. None of it was out of date and it was all in the freezer. No way did anyone need or have the right to remove any of it. I am glad my boss is taking the stance that theft = firing. Nothing else seems to work. I think, also, it may be ONE person doing it, not a bunch. But the bottom line is, leave others' stuff alone. How hard is that, really?

Crazy. It would be interesting to attach one of those bluetooth sensors like the Tile to track when the food is taken and who is taking it.

Nothing justifies theft but I would caution against stating job = money to eat.

Story time! When I was a CNA finishing nursing school for about 6 months we literally have 0 disposable income. We could pay rent, utilities (electric, water, garbage), car payment, insurance, and gas.

Fortunately I am a "prepper" and so we had a stash of food that we lived off of. We put it to the test just how much we liked Spam and rice lol. A few times we would have a surplus of about $5-$10 if our clinicals were not too far and we saved on gas. To celebrate we would go and eat at the hospital cafeteria since we got a discount and it was about the cheapest food we could buy that was pre-made. It was embarrassing to say the least to have to explain that no, we were not working another unit that day.

Thank god I stocked food and we did not have kids.

SmilingBluEyes · Sep 1, 2016

Ok maybe having a job does not equal having food to eat. But in our cases, if that is true, somebody's priorities are a bit screwed up cause most have expensive cell phones, fancy nails (that is another subject by the way), and tattoos up the wazoo. All make well above minimum wage. These are nurses and techs who make decent money, not just out of school or new CNAs.

And I can't quite get past the notion the stealing is wrong. If you are that hungry, and have no food, why not leave a note saying what you took and offering to replace it?

There are a lot of poor people out there who struggle but don't resort to dishonesty or theft to get their needs met.

I have no problem feeding the hungry and donate a lot of money and food for such causes. But I am not happy with the notion of going hungry at work cause someone feels he or she needs my meal more than I do.

Editorial Team / Admin · Sep 1, 2016

Is the additive placed there for the consumption of the owner? Is the additive a commonly consumed ingredient in that manner?
I can guarantee you that if you added a pharmaceutical ingredient to a food item with full knowledge that someone else could consume it and there were adverse consequences you would be in cuffs. Guarantee it. Poisoning food to prevent theft is poisoning food with full knowledge or the expectation that someone else will consume the food.
Criminal assault if injury is caused. Crazy I know.

Who specified a pharmaceutical agent? I happen to, on occasion, enjoy extremely spicy food. Not my fault if someone stealing food can't handle it. I don't routinely pack anything spicy but if my food were to go missing, I just might plan on eating something super spicy several days in a row.

Emergent, RN · Sep 1, 2016

Who specified a pharmaceutical agent? I happen to, on occasion, enjoy extremely spicy food. Not my fault if someone stealing food can't handle it. I don't routinely pack anything spicy but if my food were to go missing, I just might plan on eating something super spicy several days in a row.

I might be really constipated and need to spike my food with laxatives! That's not illegal, correct?

BuckyBadgerRN, ASN, RN · Sep 2, 2016

Think she claimed that as a workplace accident!?

The place were I used to work had a measly cafeteria. I've had food stolen from me on countless occasions. Half the time it was my subway sandwich. Even though I would label it, it still gets stolen.
So one day, I decided enough was enough. I sprinkled some finely chopped bird's eye chilies.(It's not as hot as some other chilies but it does the trick). It went back into the fridge with it's usual label. Around break time, it was gone. It turns out that my colleague tried picking it out after the first bite and had accidentally rubbed her eyes. She had to go down to ED and well let's just say she never stole my subway sandwiches.

annmariern · Sep 2, 2016

This reminded me of to this day mystery theft of an entire Christmas Dinner when I lived in a nurses residence. A group of nurses got together and created a feast for themselves, large turkey in the oven and all. The kitchen was a bit of a walk from their rooms, when the timer went off for the turkey and they went to get it out of the oven...yes, the turkey and all the trimmings and desserts vanished. Everything closed of course, so no takeout options. A lousy trick. Personally I would have sniffed my was along every hallway, outside every room until I found the culprit. They never did find out who did it. Dried foods became pretty popular after that.