OK, so I went to a restaurant the other day and had a really delicous sandwich, but couldn't finish it. I took the rest home in a doggy-bag and brought it in for lunch the next day. I went to retrieve it from the refrigerator in our little coffee alcove, and someone had eaten it. I know it was eaten because the styrofoam that it had been in, with my name on it, was in the trash, empty.
This bothers me on so many levels. First, I apparently work with a thief. Second, it was clearly leftovers. It was half a sandwich with unmistakeable bite marks in it.
While I was complaining to my friend about this, she told me that a month or so ago she had made a lazagna to bring to a pot luck her workgroup was having. (In her office there are several distinct workgroups but they share breakroom facilities). Anyway, she went to get her lazagna just before lunchtime to heat it up and someone had taken a huge portion out of it, and had apparently ripped up the corner of the tinfoil to get the portion out, and had left he tinfoil open.
My question to the forumn is:
WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE????
Have you ever been so famished at work that you've discarded all sense of propriety, hygiene, and respect for others to sate your hunger? Can these people have actually been raised in the same universe as the rest of us?
Posted by Christy (Member # 4397) on :
I've heard lots of people complain about roommates eating their food, but never coworkers! How awful!
Personally, I'm very scared of the work fridge as it is. There are often old rotting leftovers sitting in the fridge and condiments from who knows how long ago. I still put my lunch in there, but carefully sealed in my lunch container. I wouldn't even dream of touching someone elses lunch, let alone eating it!
*laugh*
Posted by advice for robots (Member # 2544) on :
The same thing was going on in our cafeteria about the time I started working here. The perpetrator was finally caught through careful study of security videotapes. They actually set up security cameras just to catch this guy.
I'll send you a new sandwich if you'd like. Do you prefer Bar-S or Oscar Meyer bologna?
Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :
I've had this happen occasionally at various work places over the years, and it has never failed to amaze me (it's never happened to me personally, just to the occasional co-worker). Seriously, what kind of sub-human would do something like that?
Since whoever it is at your workplace seems to be a chronic repeat offender, what you could do is make a lasagna (since they've already demonstrated a fondness for it), but include some non-toxic dye in it that would stain their mouth black or something. Then it would be fairly easy to catch them, and they'd be marked for a day or two.
Or you could just set up a webcam. That wouldn't be as much fun though.
Posted by saxon75 (Member # 4589) on :
Heh. On my first day of work I brought my lunch and put it in the office fridge. I had been expecting the possibility of grazers, so I put my name on it, along with "HANDS OFF! OR ELSE!" in big, bold letters.
That caused quite a few chuckles, as I understand it. Apparently my co-workers were all honest people who were above stealing other peoples' lunches. Some of them were also above eating their own lunches, or ever removing them from the fridge.
Now the place I really have to watch out is at my mom's house. If you leave any food item unguarded in the house, there's a very good chance my stepdad will eat it. This led to me being the type of person to eat a lot of food in a short amount of time; if you didn't eat quickly at my mom's table, my stepdad would have eaten everything before you had a chance for seconds. I've almost managed to ditch this habit, now that my dining situation is less competitive.
I remember this one time I was trying to impress my girlfriend (now my wife). I bought her a bar of her favorite chocolate (one of the Lindt bars with raspberry filling). Unfortunately I wasn't going to see her for another day and it was hot, so put it in the fridge in a brown paper bag with my name on it, hidden all the way back and underneath something.
Of course it was gone the next day. I was quite angry with my stepdad. So the next time I bought one of those chocolate bars (which are not cheap, I can tell you) and had to leave it in the fridge, I stapled the bag shut and wrote on both sides in big block printing, "DAVID, I BOUGHT THIS FOR JULIETTE. IF YOU EAT THIS I WILL HAVE TO KILL YOU. -MIKE".
That one managed to stay safe until I gave it to Juliette.
Posted by advice for robots (Member # 2544) on :
Or do the Celia trick: keep putting glazed donuts in the fridge, and just watch for who starts getting fatter. Posted by Damien (Member # 5611) on :
Heh, funny about the ice cream...
Hey afr, couldja send me a sandwich? I'm kinda hungry....and poor....and don't eat meat, so any veggies is okay! ^_^ Thaaaaaaaaaanks!
EDIT: also funny about the donuts.
[ September 11, 2003, 11:51 AM: Message edited by: Damien ]
Posted by ludosti (Member # 1772) on :
That's awful! I'm lucky to never have had a problem like that. slacker says that they have similar problems at work. He basically refuses to take anything in for lunch or snacking on that would have to be refrigerated for fear it wouldn't be there at lunch time.
Those cretins are probably the same people who park taking up 2-4 spaces in a crowded lot, go through the express line with twice as many things as they should have, talk loudly on their cell phones during movies, don't tip, drive way too slow down a busy street, don't use a turn signal, place an order large enough to feed a small army at the drive-through, throw their cigarette butts and other trash out their car windows, leave their shopping cars in the middle of parking spaces, and don't make any attempt to control their wild children in public places or other people's homes.
[ September 11, 2003, 11:52 AM: Message edited by: ludosti ]
Posted by jeniwren (Member # 2002) on :
I'd be tempted to make a lunch containing stuff that would be outright painful to eat. Like maybe go back to that restaurant, have half the sandwich again, then when I got home, open it up and load it up with pepper, curry, cinnamon, and raw crushed garlic. Anything to make eating it very uncomfortable.
Then I'd be tempted to take it to work and label it with my name like usual. I might be tempted to do this several times, so that whoever the theif is becomes conditioned to avoid food with my name on it.
Posted by Ryuko (Member # 5125) on :
Jeni, I love that plan. That is the greatest plan ever.. But don't waste a good sandwich on it. Make your own sandwich with something gross, like liverwurst or that ham that's been sitting in the fridge for a few months.
Posted by solo (Member # 3148) on :
My sister in law had a baby 3 months premature and while she was rooming at the hospital she had a similar experience. I don't know what they call the area where she was staying but it basically had a whole bunch of rooms with just a bed and closet (for mothers and I don't know who else). These rooms have a shared kitchen and she had several items of hers taken from the fridge despite big warnings on the fridge (posted by hospital staff) and her name being on the items themselves.
The thing is, if anyone would have asked her for some of it she would have gladly given it.
Some peoples children... Posted by Dan_raven (Member # 3383) on :
I suggest slipping a few ex-lax into a brownie recipe.
I am reminded of an old Dilbert cartoon. The office staff are sitting around the lunch table complaining about disappearing food. Next pane shows the pointy haired boss at the refrigerator with a lunch bag in his hands. He is saying, "This box is Magic. Everyday new food appears out of nowhere. I wonder where it comes from?"
[ September 11, 2003, 12:42 PM: Message edited by: Dan_raven ]
Posted by Ryuko (Member # 5125) on :
LOL, solo, there was a teacher at my school who'd say that all the time.
It would be something like: Student: Um, like, did we really HAVE to do the homework, er somthin? Teacher: (heavy sigh) Some people's children...
Posted by Narnia (Member # 1071) on :
I guess the people where I used to work were sick of the lab experiments going on in the fridge...so every Sunday the powers that be ordered the cleaning staff to dump everthing out of the fridge...there could be glass dishes or expensive lunch coolers...whatever. Come Monday morning, the whole thing was completely empty. And no one ever could figure out what happened to their stuff if they were silly enough to have left something valuable in there over the weekend...
But. I do prefer this over disgusting fridges full of 3 months worth of condiments, tuna sandwiches and half-eaten pieces of cake. (Like the fridge at the LDS Institute of Religion here in Portland. EW!!! No one dares take anything because it's all so scary!)
Your sabotage ideas remind me of something my friend did to her roommate who was using her shampoo. (this is bad to a poor college student.) She made a mixture of lotion, shower gel, conditioners and hand soap and put it in her empty shampoo bottle...watch the fun unfold!!
Posted by Godric (Member # 4587) on :
ludosti:
quote:...don't use a turn signal...
Is there anything more annoying than this? Good grief! That drives me crazy! I even use my turn signal at 3:00am when nobody else is on the road.
I usually don't get angry when I'm driving -- road rage, if you prefer -- but this will sometimes piss me off. Like the time I was six or so car-lengths in front of another vehicle and clearly used my turn signal to indicate I was coming over into his lane. Well, as soon as I start to change lanes he decides to speed up and almost rear-ends me. Then he gives me the finger. I was dumbstruck at that but it wasn't until he passed me and then didn't use his turn signal at all to indicate he was making a very quick and sharp right turn a few miles later that I flew off. I was yelling at no one in particular the rest of the way home.
jeniwren:
quote:...then when I got home, open it up and load it up with pepper, curry, cinnamon, and raw crushed garlic.
Or just use half a bottle of Redneck Chet's XXX-3 Alarm-"Hell-in-a-bottle" fire sauce. Yup, that ought to do the trick!
Posted by ludosti (Member # 1772) on :
Godric - I hear you. It's like they expect you to be able to read their minds. My favorite no turn signal experience was driving on the freeway. I had just gotten on (the entrance lane added on to the rest), but the way the freeway is set up, in another mile the 2 right lanes get off (onto another freeway). So, I know that I need to move over a couple lanes fairly quickly (I have gotten stuck and pushed off onto the other freeway on several occasions). There is no one in the lane to the left of me, so I turn on my turn signal and begin to move over at about the same time a kid in a land behemoth in the next lane over decides he wants in that lane too. Well, he doesn't use a turn signal and I am ahead of him, so I keep going. If he hits me, it's his fault. He got all annoyed, but I don't care. It's not like I can read his mind.... Posted by KarlEd (Member # 571) on :
Many, many drivers around here have an absurd need to keep people from pulling in front of them. About half the time I put on my turn signal in heavy traffic to change lanes the person I would be moving in front of will speed up to close the gap before (heaven forbid) I can get in the lane ahead of them.
Posted by Godric (Member # 4587) on :
Karl, I actually find Baltimore drivers downright tame compared to the people who operate vehicles in Philadelphia.
And when I was in Nashville nobody seemed to want to go faster than 40 no matter what the speed limit was. That was odd.
Posted by ludosti (Member # 1772) on :
Karl, I only do that when the person is just drifting over into my lane to cut me off and doesn't have their turn signal on. I must have a perverse soul. I will gladly slow down to let someone in when their signal is on, but someone that just assumes they can move in without so much as a how-do-you-do is looking for trouble...
[ September 11, 2003, 01:43 PM: Message edited by: ludosti ]
Posted by Kayla (Member # 2403) on :
Hey! I like liverwurst! Posted by Annie (Member # 295) on :
Narnia- off topic question: You go to the institute in Portland? Do you know Aaron Eiche by chance?
Posted by Slash the Berzerker (Member # 556) on :
I worked in a factory once where we had a grazing problem. One of my coworkers had had several bottled juices stolen from him.
So, he drank half an apple juice, then urinated into the bottle to fill it back up, and left it in the fridge. It did eventually disappear. He then left a note on the fridge that said, "Hey, you know that nasty tasting apple juice you stole? That was MY URINE. You may have stolen my food, but I still win."
Posted by Annie (Member # 295) on :
That's the funniest thing I've ever heard.
Even funnier than the time my grandpa was in the hospital and filled his urine bottle with apple juice. When the nurse came by and looked quite disturbed at how irregular it appeared, he said, "Well, maybe it'll be better the second time through," and drank it.
Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :
Did he really do that Annie? Several people have told me about a friend of a friend who did that, and I believe it's been in a movie also, although I can't think of which one at the moment.
Posted by Annie (Member # 295) on :
Well, maybe the rumor started with him, because he really did. The nurse was really mad at him all week.
Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :
Pretty funny!
Posted by Geoffrey Card (Member # 1062) on :
Who gets the urine BACK after the test, though? That's weird.
[confession]
I actually stole food at work once. I had been working 14-hour days, from ten or eleven until after midnight, without many breaks for food. It was really late at night, and I had seen this pack of Jell-O cups sitting in the door of the fridge for a week, untouched. So, starving half to death, I devoured them. The next day I replaced them. When no one ate any, I devoured that pack too. The cycle continued, until one days, I complained to my co-worker Daniel that I didn't like any of the snacks the company had provided in the breakroom. He said, "Do you like Jell-O? I bought a whole pack, but I don't really want it anymore." Sheepishly, I admitted to having eaten his Jell-O already and replaced it several times. He thought it was hilarious.
Later, another co-worker, Royden, ate two packs of my White Cheddar Blast Easy Mac. I teased him mercilessly about it
[/confession]
Posted by Narnia (Member # 1071) on :
Geoff, that is so funny!!! I don't think you fall into the "People from another universe" because:
a) you felt guilty b) you replaced the food c) you were eventually cleared of your guilt.
I hope that's reassuring. Good story!!!
Posted by Annie (Member # 295) on :
It's like the time I ate all of my roommate's Astronaut Pops, one at a time, and then realized with horror one day they were gone.
"Who ate all my Astronaut Pops?" she inevitably asked.
And I lied! I told her I didn't know!
Then I felt so guilty, I went and bought her more and admitted to her what I had done.
"That's OK," she said, "I didn't like them that much anyway. You can have those ones too."
Posted by Annie (Member # 295) on :
oh, and by the way - it wasn't urine from a test, it was just the bedpan bottle on the side of his bed that she was coming by to empty.
Posted by Dan_raven (Member # 3383) on :
My father did something similar in the hospital.
I owned a gorrilla costume.
He went in to have surgery taking a vein from his leg and putting it in his heart. Several times a day the nurses would come into the room and be more interested in looking at his leg and foot than in talking to him.
He didn't like that.
He borrowed the foot of my gorrilla costume, and slipped it over his foot, then covered it up with the blanket.
When the nurse came in she never looked up from her chart, but mumbled a "How are you today Mr. Davis?"
"I'm fine accept my foot is itching like crazy."
This had her attention. "Really?" She stared at him, but my father has a great poker face. "Lets look."
She reached down and threw the cover off of his foot.
Just as she did that, my father twitched the foot.
This big furry thing moved where my father's foot had been.
I give credit to the nurse. She let out a small shreek and took a step back, but she didn't panic. She looked up at my father and said, "you are an Evil man Mr. Davis." Then she covered his foot back up. "Don't move."
She then got her supervisor to "Look at this strange growth on Mr. Davis's leg."
After that laugh, they went and got the floor supervisor, then the intern on call, and when the Doctors began making rounds, each was called in for an unpaid "consultation".
My father's care greatly improved for the remainder of his visit. He was no longer man-in-bed-642B. He was Mr. Davis, the joker.
Posted by ludosti (Member # 1772) on :
That is fabulous!!!! Posted by Danzig (Member # 4704) on :
Well, I only work once a week and I am always forgetting to take my leftovers home, so anyone who wants mine are welcome to them. But not waiting a couple days is just tacky.
Posted by Javert (Member # 3076) on :
Since nobody has bothered to mention this, I feel that I need to.
"YOU ATE MY SANDWHICH!? MYYYYYY SANDWHICH?!" -Ross, Friends
[ September 11, 2003, 04:14 PM: Message edited by: Javert ]
Posted by Zotto! (Member # 4689) on :
Thank you for starting this thread, Karl. Posted by Narnia (Member # 1071) on :
Annie, where are you? We're talking about sandwiches!! Posted by Hobbes (Member # 433) on :
Maybe if you brought a shot gun into work that would stop 'em.
Hobbes
[ September 12, 2003, 02:29 AM: Message edited by: Hobbes ]
Posted by Speed (Member # 5162) on :
When I was in school, we had a problem with food theft from the student refrigerator in the common area. People tried for months to discover who was behind these crimes, with no success. For some reason, the thief was particularly attracted to fruit. I'd never been a victim, but it happened to some of my friends, and it was making me mad, so finally I put a note on the refrigerator that said something like the following:
quote: To whom it may concern:
I am an anonymous student who suffers from Hepatitis C. Last week I had a peach in the fridge, in my personal lunch bag. As I assumed that I would eat it, I saw no harm in injecting a small sample of my blood into the fruit. When I came to retrieve my lunch, the peach was gone. If someone ate my fruit, I suggest that you contact a doctor, and prepare for a long and extremely expensive course of treatment. Good luck.
-X
The problem ceased after that. It was a somewhat more vicious version of the apple juice prank (although I don't really have hepatitis, nor did I actually plant a peach with a blood sample). I'm not usually that mean, but for some reason that person really pushed my buttons. I hope I gave him a good scare.
Posted by docmagik (Member # 1131) on :
While Slash's suggestion rocks, the more subtle approach is to simply leave sandwich-style styrofoam packaging in the fridge with notes scribbled in marker on the bottom of the inside making fun of the thief.
I never had a problem with roommates doing this, but my wife did. We actually just scribbled, "Hi, _________," on the bottom.
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Geoff, that is so funny!!! I don't think you fall into the "People from another universe" because:![[Kiss]](graemlins/kiss.gif)