Sticky fingers-stealing other people's food/office supplies

mofomeat · Nov 9, 2011

I don't know that using a camera to record would violate anyone's privacy. Obviously, once the culprit or culprits are discovered it would have to be a very discrete reprimand, but that's not the hard part. Even putting a sign on the fridge stating "you are being monitored by CCTV" might be enough to deter some.

In my company we did have this happen, but since we are a company that deals with lots of data security and document/data destruction, we have cameras all over the place. In our case it didn't cause any stir to put a camera facing the refrigerator to see who was doing what, but it was actually unnecessary. The person who was eating other's lunches was caught red-handed.

Unfortunately in our case it was one of our employees with Autism, and as incredibly brilliant as he was in work-related things, he could not grasp why it was 'wrong' to eat someone else's lunch. Repeated discussions with him from HR and his supervisor on the subject amounted to little.

It was a tough situation. It sucks because sometimes you would go to eat your food and it was gone, but at the same time I had a hard time getting angry at the culprit because I knew he didn't really understand what he was doing.

He eventually quit the company, for reasons I do not know. But as soon as that happened the lunch theft problems went away.

Good luck.

Munch · Nov 9, 2011

This happened when I was was in my teens working in a department store. Employees would put food in the refrigerator/freezer in the employee lounge to eat/snack on for breaks. I worked in the reception department just feet away from the lounge. Suddenly during a stretch of time I was working there food that employees brought in started missing. Not just the food but the Tupperware containers and cutlery that the employees brought in from home. I mean I am not talking about a plastic knife a fork, some employees brought in leftovers from home and needed real knives and forks to cut and eat their stuff.

This perp with the sticky fingers stole food and other stuff for months(one time a poor woman got her travel coffee mug stolen she kept her iced coffee in..she was so upset..actually she was more upset about the coffee being gone but still, the person STOLE someone's property). No one could catch the worker until one month HE was caught with a silver spoon in his mouth..LITERALLY. It was one of the maintenance workers that worked overnight. The store I worked at had an overnight crew, and the overnight crew took all breaks all at the same time. Maintenance workers worked all over the entire store including the lounge. This worker was helping himself to a home cooked meal(someones leftovers) when another worker came into the lounge to mop the floor. I think this girls jaw dropped to the floor because this employee(well ex-employee) was SUCH a good worker, didn't really talk to anyone(he spoke bad English, he only spoke to the employees that spoke Spanish pretty much..but he always tried to talk to the employees that spoke English) but he always showed up on time, said hello to me(since I worked reception I buzzed the employees in through the employee entrance...he showed up a half hour before I go home...He was exceptionally nice), never took off from work and always got his work done(even early sometimes...don't know how that happened when he was eating and taking all this food), probably asked the other maintenance workers to help him out while he did his "huge projects" The boss always asked him to do(later found out from a girl I talked to that worked maintenance..no huge special projects existed).

The store presses charges against customers for stealing a pack of gum, the head of security was woken out of his sleep(only security supervisors or the security manager can detain an employee stealing OR a shoplifter for that matter..not even the general manager could detain a person), and brought the guilty worker into his office, cuffed him to a bench (yes they carry handcuffs even in a crappy department store) while the overnight security guard waited with him for the security manager to come(just a guard no supervisors work overnight unless they've been suspecting an overnight employee of stealing stuff where cameras were, they would work to detain the person).

The witness was brought into the general managers office with the security manager and another female witness(the witness was female the security manager male), it was just a precaution they always do that..the company takes sexual harassment very seriously(at least they did when I worked there about 10 years ago). Security manager got the girls statement, then went to talk to the guilty guy. The guard stayed in the room to fill out all the reports while the guilty guy talked and said he stole the food to steal his family(the store has a grocery dept so employees would buy groceries and store them in freezers and refrigerators)...so this guilty employee really DID feed his family for free stealing boxes of ice pops, frozen food meals, PLUS food and the containers employees from home. He also admitted to going into the general managers office(where employees would store dry food they bought to bring home...again no cameras since it's an off stage employee area) to "vacuum" and would steal food from the office...it took A LOT to get it out of him. Luckily the security manager spoke Spanish AND English so a translator wasn't needed(they like to keep fired/guilty employees on the hush, hush, but let's get real that store was like a high school with the gossip...everyone knew the next day because they saw the guilty party bring brought out in cuffs and shoved into a police car...yeah he was arrested.

That's the price you pay or stealing...even if the excuse is for "feeding your family." Of course he had to steal to feed his family he came to work in a brand new car, wore nice clothes/sneakers had a gucci wallet and always had the latest phones(when I worked there nextel was THE phone to have). Having all that stuff for working a minimum wage job? I don't like to make judgments on people(maybe he had a second job, maybe he had a rich relative and died or maybe he just "found all the stuff he wore/had that he just happen to see fall off the back of a truck)...but with all those nice things...stealing a four dollar box of corn pops and a five dollar Tupperware(amongst MANY other food items)...give me a break...The only other thing I hate more than people stealing my ice cream(yes my stuff was stolen) is liars with lousy excuses..."I stole to feed my family and tried to clean and return the coffee mugs, plates and other things to try to return to stores for store credit or to sell on ebay." Not only a bad liar that was a thief...he had the nicest things(on a minimum wage job) and he actually thought he could sell a single used plate on ebay so his family could pay his rent. Gimme a break, my 3 month old nephew can make up a better excuse than that...the ONLY thing I give him credit for is actually confessing(I guess you have to when you are caught in the act).

nerdtonurse?, BSN, RN · Nov 9, 2011

We had a thief. One of the nurses made a delicious looking cupcake with sprinkles and chocolate frosting. Sweetned it with a gallon of sorbitol. Cupcake disappeared from the fridge in the breakroom, and so did one of the docs for 2 days. No more taking of the food from our fridge, anyway.

AJPV · Nov 9, 2011

This happened on my dorm floor - stealing food from the lounge fridge. The thief continually became more brazen and the stolen items of increasing significance (eg, entire pizzas). We had some left over Chicago style deep-dish pizza. We thought we would add a little gift to the pizza to help the thief with his colon health. The pizza was labeled with one of our names. It was quickly evident who our culprit was - complaints of abdominal cramps, groaning, and a super-extended bathroom session.

Quickbeam, BSN, RN · Nov 9, 2011

I'm 56 and have been working for 40 years. This goes on everywhere I have ever worked. My solution (since it bugs me as well)...I bring my lunch with ice packs and do not use a communal refrigerator, ever. I do not bring personal office supplies in or if I do I keep them in my locker. I leave nothing where anyone can walk off with it. I had my stethoscope engraved to prevent walk off.

With these measures? I've never had a problem again. Other people do but that's out of my control.

locolorenzo22, BSN, RN · Nov 9, 2011

I label my food, date and time it, and watch it pretty closely. I try to go back to the fridge about every hour or two just to take a drink maybe out of a bottle of pop, put it back in, try to keep all my stuff in the same area of the fridge.

ever try exlax brownies? That'll clear things right up! (Hey, I made a pun!)

Dalzac, LPN, LVN, RN · Nov 9, 2011

I worked with a nurse that had an eating disorder. She weighed in at close to 400+ lbs. She would actually eat everyones lunch! I had to leave my lunch in another department. Nobody did anything to repremand her. One other nurse did exlax brownies. She brought it in and told everyone to leave the treats alone. Our perp ate the entire plate.

I worked with her for 10 yrs and when we were transferred to a sister hospital she did the same thing. But instead of a small hospital where everyone knew everyone We were in a very large hospital. We had a float nurse that kept her lunch next to her purse at he computer spot. My heavy weight friend found it and ate it, and the floater caught her. What a fight!!! She was written up and got a 3 day suspension. She was warned if she did it again she would be fired.

She finally ate herself to death. She died from complications from her morbid obesity when she had her gall bladder taken out.

I thought it was the saddest thing I had ever witnessed.

Cuddleswithpuddles · Nov 9, 2011

Odd suggestion but here it goes.

I would find an Overeaters Anonymous card or even just a printout of the nearest meeting and put it in my lunch box.

This will not stop theft but hopefully will give the thief something to think about for his or her own benefit.

Cuddleswithpuddles · Nov 9, 2011

I worked with a nurse that had an eating disorder. She weighed in at close to 400+ lbs. She would actually eat everyones lunch! I had to leave my lunch in another department. Nobody did anything to repremand her. One other nurse did exlax brownies. She brought it in and told everyone to leave the treats alone. Our perp ate the entire plate.
I worked with her for 10 yrs and when we were transferred to a sister hospital she did the same thing. But instead of a small hospital where everyone knew everyone We were in a very large hospital. We had a float nurse that kept her lunch next to her purse at he computer spot. My heavy weight friend found it and ate it, and the floater caught her. What a fight!!! She was written up and got a 3 day suspension. She was warned if she did it again she would be fired.
She finally ate herself to death. She died from complications from her morbid obesity when she had her gall bladder taken out.
I thought it was the saddest thing I had ever witnessed.

I have witnessed this as well.

This is why I suggested Overeaters Anonymous.

applewhitern, BSN, RN · Nov 9, 2011

I have had every travel cup I brought to work stolen. Jackets, stethoscopes stolen. We caught one housekeeper putting our brand-new microwave in the trunk of her car, still in the box! I can't imagine eating someone's lunch. I am so particular about the cleanliness of food, I would be worried what type of environment the food came from, such as how clean their kitchen was.

AJPV · Nov 9, 2011

A friend of mine worked in a residential psych facility for abused & neglected kids (age 4-12). Some of the direct care staff (equivalent to techs) were caught loading up their car with the kids' Christmas gifts - still wrapped. Their car was so loaded up that it couldn't fit any more!