Breakroom refrigerator theft

[Emergent]

Both of my jobs have signs on the fridge from exasperated coworkers telling people to stop stealing the food of others.

Seriously? If it's not yours, don't take it folks. If you forgot your food, do not, I repeat, DO NOT steal the food of others.

And on a related topic, please take your rotting leftovers out of the fridge after a month or two, ok?

[AutumnApple]

I'm not advocating you do this. (hmph, I start too many posts saying that, is that bad? lol)

Someone solved it on my floor. He brought in a two liter of Pepsi, filled his cup with his drink then put the rest in the employee fridge. Next morning, most of it was gone.

Thing is, before putting the two liter bottle in the fridge, he spit and backwashed into it and "claimed" it (licked the opening).

Word got around about how he did all those disgusting things then someone drank after him. Stuff stopped disappearing from the fridge.

[MaxAttack, BSN, RN]

I was driving onto an Army post on my way to work in the ED, and the military police at the gate decided I looked like a good candidate to have pull over for a vehicle search. I looked panicked and held up my lunch bag and said, "But I'm on the way to the hospital, it's an emergency!" They fell over themselves ushering me through the gate. But because I'm me, I had to tell them I was kidding. They thought it was hilarious, and so did I.

This is amazing lol.

I'm lucky that I haven't had to deal with this, but I would place bobby trapped food as a deterrent. Cookies with pepper, sandwich with chicken liver, Pepsi with hot sauce.

If that doesn't work, you could try interrogations. Although I hear water boarding isn't really effective..

[DoGoodThenGo]

Sadly for a very long time now any food or whatever in nurses breakroom has been seen as fair game to all and sundry. Not just various staff members but visitors, patients, student nurses, anyone who can walk seems to wander in and help themselves.

Back in the day we'd often have a cake, muffins, donuts or something for one of the nurses if it was their Bday. If you wanted any of it (your share really because often a hat was passed around to pay for the card and snack....) you had better get it while the getting was good. Go back a bit later and often the place was cleaned out.

Also often patients wives or family members would bring in something "for the nurses/girls" like homemade lasagna, baked goods or whatever. Again you needed to act quickly especially if it was late and the post graduates were out sniffing about for a free meal.

If you were lucky to work with one of those great old school ward clerks they also often brought in goodies, again with the same results.

Often nurses tried to safeguard by keeping some things like a muffin basket or cake in the nurses' station. But concerns about cleanliness and or attracting vermin often resulted in a memo stating all such open food had to go into the break room.

In an effort to create a diversion often unopened food or drinks from patients trays was taken and stashed in the break-room fridge. Jello-0, ices, cans of soda, wrapped sandwiches... You put them upfront in the hopes whomever was doing the pilfering would grab the first thing they saw.

It was the nurses who were expecting I always felt sorry for; I mean there you are in that condition looking forward to having your meal and or drink only to find someone beat you to it. In many places nurses were forbidden to leave the floors even on break (they ate at nurses station or break-room), so what were these poor girls to do? As an aide I'd offer to do a "meal run" since was able to leave the building on my breaks. Much faster than ordering and waiting for things to arrive and at least people got to eat something.

[VerticalHorizon]

I, on the other hand, don't trust anything that anybody brings in unless I see them open the original package. I never participate in cover-dish events unless I bring in something from the grocer with original packaging like a pound cake or plastic ware, etc., and I never return to my meal if, for whatever reason, I couldn't finish it in one sitting. People are definitely different today..

Sounds like you miss out on a lot of good, free food.

[DoGoodThenGo]

Maybe this would help?

That's my lunch bag. Lol

Might put an amature off, but not hard core food thief! *LOL* You could slap a "stool sample" label on something and it *still* would be gone...

Worked with someone who had their dinner stolen so often she loudly threatened to put a dead rat in her meal bag to "teach someone a lesson".

[Lunah, MSN, RN]

Let me tell you, this is NOT restricted to the hospital environment. When I worked in corporate publications/marketing for a government consulting firm, our food would often go missing from the breakroom fridge. There was nothing more annoying that working late, having dinner on the company's dime as compensation, saving leftovers from said dinner in the fridge for lunch the next day, then *hey presto!* It's gone. Grrrrrrrrrrr!

[Lev, MSN, RN, NP]

LOL LOL LOL! It's a problem where I work too. And the spoiled food - yuck!

[BuckyBadgerRN, ASN, RN]

I bring my lunch in an insulated bag with ice packs and I don't even work in a high theft facility

[Kooky Korky, BSN, RN]

It was Nights' job to clean the frij each week. We did it on Saturday, put up notices that it would be done on Thursday and Friday. That gave everyone notice to either label their food (dressings, ketchup, creamer, stuff they liked to keep in there for a while) or throw it out/take it home.

I never threw out anything that wasn't spoiled, labeled or not, because food is costly. But some staff tossed anything unlabeled. There was an awful lot of yelling on Monday morning. Sup backed up the wrongdoers. So we sort of backed off on cleaning. If there are rules, they should be upheld by Supervisors. Otherwise, what's the point of having the rules?

[djh123]

This is yet another reason why some people say they prefer their pets to human beings.

[CelticGoddess, BSN, RN]

A friend of mine used to put her flavored creamer in a Tupperware bottle with the label "breast milk" on it to keep people from using up all of her creamer.

Sadly, some idiot actually used one of the nurses (who pumped) breast milk in his coffee. He's gone, thankfully. We were expecting the mum to beat the tar out of him. I wouldn't have blamed her!

My husband brought me thanksgiving dinner one night in specimen bags and cups. Nobody, and I mean NOBODY would touch my food. The MD on call saw me eating my corn pudding out of the specimen cup and gave me a questioning look. It saved my food and that is all the counted. :)

I have (and everyone on night shift with me)learned to never leave food. It will be gone by the next day. Typically by noon. We have gotten fed up with feeding day shift, so we always take our leftover home, especially when we have pot luck!

[Nobody00]

Maybe this would help?

That's my lunch bag. Lol

Love this!! Such a shame this lunch bag is $30 + $37 delivery to australia