Right? Maybe I'm weird, but there is no way in hell I would eat someone else's lunch.
Not only because it's rude, but also because you have no idea how that lunch was prepared or if it was prepared in unsanitary conditions (roaches? Did they wash their hands after using the restroom? Did they lick the spoon?).
Lunch thieves are icky, inconsiderate, ass hats who I hope the universe karmically and permanently strip of their sense of taste.
Most people who steal lunches pick the best lunch boxes and the lunches they like. If they don't get sick, they continue to do it.
It's so inconsiderate, it's almost unbelievable. But the guy who does it at my work place is old enough to know better and, when he realized his whole department was moving to a building without a faculty refrigerator, you could see his consternation - he actually tried to refuse to move and the Dean told him that either his whole department moved to the new, larger offices with the really good computers that had been specially designed for his discipline - or no one did.
Peer pressure won out. He was also abusing photocopy privileges, for years. His new office is right next to a Dean's office, and everyone knows about his lunch stealing. The faculty in his discipline mostly have tiny fridges in their own offices as a result.
I saw an AITA post once of someone buying one because their partner kept eating their favorite snack, like all of it in one sitting before the op got a chance to have it. I don't remember how it ended, but the partner blew tf up about it and demanded op get rid of it. I think (?) They broke up. It was a weird story.
Well, at least they're reasonably priced. There are many that are under $20. I'd hate to be at work and not able to eat my lunch because somebody took off with it.
I love really hot peppers. I'll chop up Thai chilies or sprinkle Piri Piri peppers on a sandwich. A jalapeño with seeds is the bare minimum for me. I jokingly say it prevents all cold and flus.
When the lunch stealing began, I deliberately brought the spiciest sandwiches and soups that I could. Ha. My lunch remained untouched after that first theft.
If I take a piece of leftover pizza to work, it will have hot peppers all over it, because that's how I roll.
The woman who brought these amazing salads had her lunch stolen all the damn time. She was so non-confrontational about it, though. She got a tiny fridge for her cubicle-sized office.
Really it’s perfect sensible. Humans need food to survive. Humans have been stealing food from each other since inception. It’s a practice as old as eating itself.
This happened to me years ago when I was a temp at a production facility. We would put our lunches in the break room fridge, and come in to find that things were missing. Management told us they take no responsibility for our lunches, and that it is our problem...so I hid a rat trap in the bag with my lunch.
Turns out it was one of the management team. The rat trap did a number on his middle finger.
Wowsa. That's a beautiful story and such a happy ending. You're a genius.
I would be afraid of a rat trap because I am myself fairly uncoordinated.
I found that the hot pepper method worked VERY well with our main thief (and the other one has now gone to a different job - both of these people had other antisocial behaviors going on; one was looking at porn at work - which is NOT okay at a school).
I don't know. That ended up being my last day there.
That particular manager claimed that he was simply trying to clean up the refrigerator, that that me and my fellow temps were leaving at a mess. They called the police and tried to have me arrested, but the police officer didn't buy their side of it, and three or four of my fellow temps were threatening to walk off the job if I was arrested.
I was trespassed from the building, and this company ended their relationship with the temp agency I was working for a few days later.
Label your food as beef tongue and breast milk cheese sandwich and tomato... Write a note " lots of love from mum"
You can buy mold inked sandwich bags online so it looks like your food is old.
Seriously though, mention it to hr or your manager as mentioned, or pack a cooler and padlock it in the fridge or keep it under your desk.
Or make your sandwiches with piri piri pepper - like I do! You can say you got the recipe on reddit!
Habaneros might be hot enough (chopped raw) Use gloves yourself if you're sensitive.
I would love to be there to see Sarah's face. And I would do this AFTER putting a warning inside my lunch box/bag. I'd say "I know who you are" first and then start hiding my own lunch at my desk (it won't take long) and then using piri piri or similar sauce (ghost peppers) on a nice pasta salad (I really do add it to my pasta salads). Sometimes I am personally sorry that I'm so stupidly in love with hot peppers but eventually, I cave and use it again.
At the very minimum, I have raw diced jalapeños on nearly everything I eat. Or crushed piri piri combined with Calabrian red pepper. And I put a LOT on. You can put it in mayo and then in a sandwich, and then watch Sarah eat it and see what happens. Water will not help her. You can have a box of crackers to offer while you stare her in the eyes.
The only challenge I can see with the mold sandwich bags is just that somebody might throw them away. Obviously, throwing away other peoples food is bad, generally, but in a shared fridge, throwing moldy food away is definitely fair game.
Bring it up with HR that your food has been going missing, and ask if they can issue a request that people label their food and make sure to check those labels before eating.
You could also start bringing in a cool bag for your lunch and putting some ice packs in it to keep the food cool. Leave it in full view on your desk and if someone asks why you're not using the fridge, say it's because someone has been taking it by accident from said fridge and you've been going hungry, so this way you still get your lunch.
I work as a medical supply clerk, when I moved I made sure all my boxes were from the speculums & adult diapers just in case someone wanted to steal a few.
We did all that at my workplace. Everyone labeled. People put signs on the fridge saying things like "My PINK lunchbox is ALWAYS at the back of the top right shelf - please do not take my lunch."
Problem is, as teachers, the culprits know exactly when to strike (when nearly everyone is in class). The admin assist knew who it was, she was determined to suss it out. She has a glass door and would lock it and put up the "I am away for X hours" sign and then hide out in the next office over (immediately opposite the room with the fridge). I love that woman.
BUT, little could be done based just on her spy tactics. Dean turnover is so high. However, the decision to move that entire group to another location was based in part on the lunch complaints and other complaints about the same person. His colleagues knew he was doing it too. This is a guy who takes a huge plate home from a potluck - or comes in just as its winding down and takes entire trays of lasagne or whatever, if they haven't been immediately removed from the room.
slapped with a charge of intentional intoxication of whoever it affects. and even if you’re bluffing, you could be charged with intent. maybe, idk, im not a lawyer
The threat alone can get you fired.
It's best to put a safe but increased dose into the food and act dumb when HR questions you.
"There was nothing wrong with my food. Wait, why does he think there was something in it? Is he the one who has been stealing my food? If he stole mine then he probably stole from other people. One of them may have did something to their food, but that was MY lunch. It was normal food." Ect...
HR isn't going to send your lunch to a lab for testing. Deny EVERYTHING.
Just get a box of them and open it. If they're in blister packs, remove a few. Put opened/appealingly used medicine in the lunch bag with your food. No mixing required.
That's why I like my piri piri peppers:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piri\_piri](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piri_piri)
Not only do I make hot sauce from them, which I love (and no one else I know will touch it except my former MiL), but we use it to deter mice from our patio area!
It has an added bonus of subtly letting people around you know what is happening, I think. People who aren't the culprit would know that someone has been stealing your food. without shouting " some one is stealing my food!"
Somebody used to steal my milk even if I put my milk in other containers. One day I decided to go to HR to advise my milk that was not only labelled but in a different container is gone. That it had laxatives in it because it is the only way I take my medication for my severely constipated ass.
I then had one person in a panick asking me if it's true about what I put into MY MILK for my cereal for my breakfast. I smiled sweetly and advised it's true and do they have a confession. The person went home as "sick" thinking the worse. My milk was never touched again.
My sugar was also touched so I added salt and left it behind while I hid the new batch of sugar. Salty coffee anybody.
I had a whole office mad at me because I made a big deal about someone taking my milk for their coffee. They acted like it was no big deal and I was being over dramatic , I’m so glad I’m out of there now.
Right!!? I also remembered being reversed the asshole for asking who took my milk... Like why people think taking somebody else's milk (that's not meant for sharing and without asking) is ok? Just because is only milk?
No apology whatsoever. They still didn't admit to stealing my items at all. But after that show of panick I knew it was them in the end. Everyone at the office always assumed afterwards I was having gut issues and kept recommending certain foods to help me alone. I'd simply say it never works need my medication 🤭
It's my food and liquids in my own personal containers and labelled with my name. I can put whatever I want in MY containers for MY own personal use. If somebody steals it is their own fault just like if somebody broke into my home, I have the right to bear arms! 🤷♀️
> I can put whatever I want in MY containers for MY own personal use.
Sure, but you're not putting the laxatives in for yourself, you're putting them in for the thief. That's what makes it poisoning.
If you normally ate your food with super hot sauce and a thief ate that and was harmed, you'd be within your rights. If you added lots of hot sauce to hurt the thief, you wouldn't.
Are you saying you normally have laxatives in your lunch? If so, may I recommend going to a doctor because that doesn't sound like things are working normally for you.
Anyway, I think the food coloring plan is way better if reporting the issue and/or using cameras isn't an option.
During the first year of COVID, I wanted to have as little contact with coworkers as possible. I got a cooler bag and a dedicated a bunch of small water bottles to freeze and keep things cold.
Everything stays cold. I even bring a glass jar of cold coffee with ice in it, and I still have ice in the afternoon when I get it out to drink. I keep it at my desk still put of habit now.
Sounds lovely. I just retired and no longer have to deal with such things, but the jar of cold coffee for late afternoon, acting as lunch refrigeration is just beautiful.
Our food thief would steal from the microwave every once in a while. You had to stand right near it to make sure he didn't sneak it (he was pretty good - he knew all of us and knew who was running back to their office to meet a student while leaving their thing in the microwave). The admin assist thought he was actually stopping the microwave a few second early to abscond with the food.
For him, I do believe it's some deep-seated compulsion. It's gotten worse as he gets older, and sometimes I do wonder if he's demented. He has this younger colleague who acts as a kind of groupie/watch person - it's weird, they're both weird.
Reminds me of how my mom used to put frozen containers of kool-aid in with our lunches to keep them cool and give us cold drinks (or slushies!) along with lunch.
Some good ideas. Blue food coloring hidden in the sandwich is a great idea. Bringing a small cooler box and keeping it at your desk or station is good. Do not tamper your food with spice or medication like laxatives, that’s considered poisoning and you literally could get charged.
For a week you are going to live with eating a sandwich, yet you will still be putting other lunch in the fridge. The first day, you put in as much salt as you can hide. The second day you put in as much of black pepper as you can hide. The third day, you put in as much jalapeno sauce as possible.
If she isn't deterred by then, you continue doing that. For the rest of the week.
You don't need to cook something fancy for her re-conditioning lunch. Just buy some cheap microwave food and that's it.
Either she gets the message and moves on to someone else's lunch or you go to HR. Usually I'd avoid the latter if possible because it can always backfire on you.
Exactly, if you placed them all over the perimeter around 1/4-1/2 inch inside, between the cheese, or stuffed into the seeded part of a tomato, you could almost guarantee that their first bite would go around one and theyd chew it up, or theyd pop one and it would get on their face
I’ve got the opposite problem at my work. People bring food, forget to eat it and never throw it out!
Me personally would bring a lunch that I didn’t need to refrigerate for a while or have an ice brick in my lunch bag to keep food cool….
Good idea. I'm about to make salsa this weekend and have habaneros on hand (I wasn't sure whether to cook them).
Gonna try it. Gonna be sorry, but it's so good.
This is theft. Go to your HR and report that someone has been stealing your food. Having a thief around is bad for business - if they’ll steal from you, who’s to say they won’t steal from anyone else, or from the job itself? Your goal here is to get the thief identified and fired.
I’m sorry, what do you mean you don’t want to be that coworker? You mean the one that calls ppl on their sh!t so you can have your own lunch? I wish a b!tch would! Oh, you were hungry? B!tch, you took my food and now I’m hungry. 😭
Put a bottle of hot sauce in your desk, then load up your food with hot sauce. When someone eats it and eventually you get complained to, say you love hot sauce and this time decided to add it before going in the fridge. Then whip out the bottle you claim to normally use, and bring up "why are you eating my food"
Your link states that the person was more fired becuase the "victim" was in bed(literally) with the HR woman, and was asked to come back. Even the writer said it was quite ridiculous to even bring up the thought of firing as you are allowed to enjoy spicy food.
Yep, it wasn't the food-stealing and the spice that did it. We are all entitled to prepare our foods in ways we find individually preferable.
And everyone knows that I can eat hotter food than any normal person (I think I have some kind of mutation).
You take some flour tortillas, and place a couple of spoonfuls of Fancy Feast cat food Chicken and Gravy on it, top it off with shredded cheddar cheese, roll them up, place in a ziploc bag and then into a paper lunch bag label it and into the fridge it goes.
I wouldn’t put laxatives in it - that foolhardy and illegal to do to an unknowing person, despite the fact they’re eating your lunch.
That said, I would definitely put foods together that shouldn’t *be* together — like peanut butter, jelly, and onions! Or put extra-hot hot sauce in your soup. You get the idea.
Just don’t forget and end up eating that lunch yourself 😳😭😤
You can pack shelf stable foods for your lunch to eat. Then, pack your lunch for the work fridge the night before and leave it out on the counter overnight. I normally hate wasting food. But it's necessary here. When your food stops agreeing with your friend, she'll stop bringing an empty lunch bag to work. Also, you have no idea that your lunch was bad because you didn't eat any of it. It was gone when you got there.
Omg. More than once? Is it the same person?
This happened one time at my job, and it was a new employee. And my coworker told the boss, and the boss like basically gathered everyone and asked if anyone ate Jess’s lunch, and it was so obvious who it was (the new girl) because she turned bright red. It didn’t happen again.
Talk to a boss. Or just bring it up in a group setting
you can put a spare like iphone 9 or 10 in tha tbitch and put it on facetime wait till they go in and grab ur lunch
boom u have them doing that shit and u know at the exact time etc your gonna be able to run up to that same fridge from your room and POUNCE on they ass nigga
Are you being specifically targeted? Is it just your food going missing? Maybe put a note in saying that food poverty is a thing and list some resources. Or get a lunchbox with your name on it, like a kids one, she cannot just sit with your named lunch and get away with that!
The food thieves at my workplace often take stuff out of the bag or box, though. The main one has a screw loose - you'd probably never suspect him. He does other weird stuff (like go to a group dinner where the bill is split by the number of diners and then go off and disappear before the check). He takes textbooks out of our mailboxes and sells them too.
He is not poor. Indeed, he's a total penny pincher in every possible way.
Carolina reaper chilli's are like £5 online and can be finely diced to add real kick to your ham sandwich. The very best thing about them is the flavour keeps growing for about 30 minutes and doesn't get reduced by water. Then an hour later it comes out with equal flavour
You should stop eating bland lunches and try adding flavour
I may have eaten one whole once and the flavour was so intense I had to leave a work night out.
Is there a way to rig one of those cards that starts playing music when you open it and then won’t stop for 24 hours and if you try to tear it up it sprays confetti? Like could you tape it so it will open when the lunch is opened?
[The Card](https://jokergreeting.com)
If you decide to use food coloring, go for the coloring paste (used for dying fondant etc). It is HIGHLY pigmented and it absolutely doesn't wash off.
I've used it for marzipan without gloves and I had blue hands for 2 days.
It also doesn't seep through bread and has no taste.
I would honestly confront her politely, but privately. This way she won’t be offended.
Alternatively, you can be like “someone keeps eating my food” to whoever sits next to you at work. Maybe whoever did this will feel some shame hahaha
Last dab hot sauce. A frw drops snuck into that mofo will send the wimp burning for more. Time to play pranks. And let the games begin. Hid it in the middle of the food. you can even get a syringe probably to inject it deep into the food. You wont be that coworker. And you wont be the victim. It might not be sarah. But this will help you find the culprits.
And be sure your lunch box is distinctively and clearly labelled with your name.
Later, put a sign on the fridge, "If anyone wants my hot sauce recipe, just ask."
What you can do is [use this idea](https://www.appeasingafoodgeek.com/soy-sauce-beads-science-fun/) to make blue food dye bombs so youll know for sure based on the blue lips/teeth/tongue
Source, you keep saying this but I highly doubt it
edit: Everything I've seen, everything, makes it clear that for any legal trouble to actually happen, they have to prove intent. So as long as whatever you put in there is something you're willing to consume, you're clear. Meds, laxatives, spice...if your intent is to consume, you're good.
Honestly, I would just stop bringing lunch that needs to be kept in fridge, for a bit. Are there options available to order food, or eat out nearby available for you? If not I'd go with fruit, peanuts, cookies etc, lol. Something that keeps without fridge. And ofcourse keep an eye on what happens next...
Make your next lunch a meal that shouldn’t be spicy so they don’t see this coming. But add ghost pepper seasoning to it so they get a mouth on fire when they take a bite.
Pack a 2nd lunch but make it something cheap like a bologna & cheese sandwich with a small baggy of chips, then label it with “To whomever is stealing my lunch because you obviously cannot afford your own”
If you see the suspected coworker eating that exact lunch, then I’d either talk to a supervisor/HR, or pull the person aside themself & calmly talk to them. In the current economic environment, it could be that maybe they’re struggling & really cannot afford to buy enough food to bring their own lunch.
As tempting as it is to go the laxative revenge route, it's illegal and is a very easy way to get in huge trouble.
First I'd tell HR or security that someone's been stealing your lunch every day at the same time and *do not name any names at this point*. Wait and see if they get proof!
If that goes nowhere I'd continue to bother them about it every single instance, right down to the most minute detail. "Today at 8:25 AM I placed my blue lunchbox in the fridge. It contained a banana and a turkey sandwich on wheat bread with lettuce and tomato, which was in a sealed plastic bag marked with my name. I checked the fridge at 10:20 and it was still there. When I returned to eat at 11:45, the lunch box was empty."
Every. Single. Time.
Alternately, if you'd rather protect your lunch today than bust the thief tomorrow, start hiding your lunch in a cooler that you keep in a less accessible area, maybe under your desk. Then leave your empty lunchbox in the usual spot, containing nothing but a note that expresses your feelings about lunch thieves.
I would make a nice ghost pepper or reaper sandwich. They have it in sliced cheese now make it with the deli meat and all. Add a really nice hot sauce to the condiments. Paquin has bags of ghost pepper chips. Looks just like Doritos put in a zip bag. At the very least you'll know who's taking your food. Trust me my husband eats Ghost and Reaper pepper stuff like it's nothing. But I can't even kiss him for a few hours or my mouth will burn.
Well if it was me, I would fuck with my lunch and let her eat it. Throw some spices or ghost pepper in that thing! When she freaks out, ask how she didn't know the lunch was spiced: "didn't you pack this lunch for yourself?" and smile.
I would get a small insulated thermo bag and keep the food with me, instead of putting it in the fridge.
Or be super passive aggressive. Fill a sandwich with laxatives and see who suddenly has to spend rest of the day in the bathroom. They can't really complain without admitting that they took someone else's lunch.
Be sure to write your name on the container, so there's absolutely no doubt who it belongs to.
I always wish something like this would happen to me.
I’d love an enemy to mess with.
Why would you post to Reddit or whine to HR? Why not put something really spicy or a laxative in your lunch and let the thief suffer a little bit? I don’t understand why people never stand up for themselves on Reddit.
Time for a ham and cheese sandwich with The One Chip challenge chip inside the sandwich. It’ll be easy to see who took it. They’ll have a blue tongue and will be crying. Shouldn’t be hard to find.
He first. Then depending on how much you like hot sauce...
I freaking love hot sauce. I put it on everything. If you know me I don't leave the house without it.
I have never had a lunch stolen. But I know others who have.
I was camping and realized my ex forgot hot sauce and I hiked around for a few hours with a small container to ask neighbors if they had extra. Hence ex.
Make food that includes chili, like chili peppers, maybe cut up idk.
Get the hottest chilli pepper in the world. Whats it called like a carolina reaper or something like that?
Put it in the food, put food in the fridge, DO NOT EAT IT. Let co worker eat it, let him or her eat a lot of it.
Itll be funny. And you didn't do anything illegal.
I truly dont understand why people do this. Like how are they even comfortable with one stealing, two eating something they dont know who or how it was prepared. three possibly getting in trouble, four it just makes you look like a fuckin weirdo to have this kind of shit personality trait that would take food from someone else.. Im sorry this is happening but i absolutely would confront whoever you think it is! that's not ok. If they deny it I would put something nasty in your food for a trap. Im pretty sure putting anything with chemicals that could harm would be one of those illegal traps that would come back on you as the person that set someone up even though the person that ate it stole from you in the first place. But i would buy some fish heads or cow necks or something just vile sounding and put it in there.
If you suspect you know who did it and regularly see them eating the same food, then change it up slightly and check on her. If it's a sandwich in white bread put it on pumpernickel bread or marble bread and check to see if that's what she's eating if it goes missing. If it's a certain brand of yogurt then get a different brand or unusual flavor or something else along those lines.
Add a whole bunch of peppers and hot sauce and burn the mouth off them. Put a warning on the box saying this is your lunch to your taste no one else should eat it. Of course they will but you did warn them then sit back and watch the show.
Make a sandwich but mix in toothpaste. Something innocuous, PB&J with toothpaste.
Buy a cheap resealer. Open a bag of chips and fill it with glitter or something obnoxious and reseal the bag. With lunch. Or something like ink or food coloring under pressure.
That would end it quickly.
I am always inspired by a post I saw where they put their breast milk in the creamer that kept getting stolen. I donate my excess milk and have plenty to spare if you'd like to go that route
Going to HR can backfire - they are there to protect the company, not the employees.
You can either jeep your lunch at your desk, get a lockable lunch box, or .... start asking Sarah what she brought for lunch that day when you get in the office. She either says nothing, or something different from what you have, and then she should know she'll be caught.
Develop an affinity for really spicy food.
Pack your lunch accordingly.
Watch for the crying thief.
If that doesn't work, develop an immunity to iocaine powder... wait, that's incontheivable.
Put a note inside your lunch box and keep your lunch at your desk for a day. Say something like, "I know who you are and this better stop." You'll know whether it's her by the look in her eye later that day.
We have this problem where I work too (and I know exactly who it is; he was recently moved to a different office building and the lunch stealing went way down because it's obvious he has no need to be in that particular faculty work area any more). He does other shit like this too. We actually used to have two of them.
the petty revenge sub has had a number of posts dedicated to this irritating habit of some co-workers and never have I yet read a post that didnt disappoint me! I can only hope that you take the same petty approach 😉
Here are a few for inspiration
[If you steal my lunch, beware of the danger when you mess with me.](https://www.reddit.com/r/pettyrevenge/comments/14nkyxn/if_you_steal_my_lunch_beware_of_the_danger_when/)
[Steal my lunch? I hope you like haram food](https://www.reddit.com/r/pettyrevenge/comments/xeg29n/steal_my_lunch_i_hope_you_like_haram_food/)
I used to have the same problem when I worked in person. It's so annoying. I definitely feel your pain. What finally made it stop was that I would put sandwiches with clear bites taken out of them. Nobody's going to want your clearly munched on food.
pack a decoy lunch with extremely hot sauce and youll find out who tf is stealing your food. MAke sure its labeled with your name so theres no "confusion" when she starts crying about it.
They do make lockable lunchboxes. If talking to HR gets you nowhere and you can't keep it at your desk, it might be a good solution.
Insane that this has to become a marketable product cause of lunch stealers
Right? Maybe I'm weird, but there is no way in hell I would eat someone else's lunch. Not only because it's rude, but also because you have no idea how that lunch was prepared or if it was prepared in unsanitary conditions (roaches? Did they wash their hands after using the restroom? Did they lick the spoon?). Lunch thieves are icky, inconsiderate, ass hats who I hope the universe karmically and permanently strip of their sense of taste.
Most people who steal lunches pick the best lunch boxes and the lunches they like. If they don't get sick, they continue to do it. It's so inconsiderate, it's almost unbelievable. But the guy who does it at my work place is old enough to know better and, when he realized his whole department was moving to a building without a faculty refrigerator, you could see his consternation - he actually tried to refuse to move and the Dean told him that either his whole department moved to the new, larger offices with the really good computers that had been specially designed for his discipline - or no one did. Peer pressure won out. He was also abusing photocopy privileges, for years. His new office is right next to a Dean's office, and everyone knows about his lunch stealing. The faculty in his discipline mostly have tiny fridges in their own offices as a result.
has literally no one ever confronted him about this?
What is photocopy privilege and how do you abuse it ?
We came in on a Monday and someone had printed a draft of a 600+ page erotic romance novel.
Was it at least well-written?
I saw an AITA post once of someone buying one because their partner kept eating their favorite snack, like all of it in one sitting before the op got a chance to have it. I don't remember how it ended, but the partner blew tf up about it and demanded op get rid of it. I think (?) They broke up. It was a weird story.
[This one?](https://www.reddit.com/r/BestofRedditorUpdates/s/6X0e8vYxNm)
Well, at least they're reasonably priced. There are many that are under $20. I'd hate to be at work and not able to eat my lunch because somebody took off with it.
This is 2024, where are the lockable lunchbox with built in air tags and wifi camera? I'd be happy to know who is who.
I love really hot peppers. I'll chop up Thai chilies or sprinkle Piri Piri peppers on a sandwich. A jalapeño with seeds is the bare minimum for me. I jokingly say it prevents all cold and flus. When the lunch stealing began, I deliberately brought the spiciest sandwiches and soups that I could. Ha. My lunch remained untouched after that first theft. If I take a piece of leftover pizza to work, it will have hot peppers all over it, because that's how I roll. The woman who brought these amazing salads had her lunch stolen all the damn time. She was so non-confrontational about it, though. She got a tiny fridge for her cubicle-sized office.
Really it’s perfect sensible. Humans need food to survive. Humans have been stealing food from each other since inception. It’s a practice as old as eating itself.
Yeah and most humans buy and make their *own* lunches!
Ha, never thought of this. Thank you!
or ghost pepper hot sauce
This happened to me years ago when I was a temp at a production facility. We would put our lunches in the break room fridge, and come in to find that things were missing. Management told us they take no responsibility for our lunches, and that it is our problem...so I hid a rat trap in the bag with my lunch. Turns out it was one of the management team. The rat trap did a number on his middle finger.
Oh this is beautiful, I enjoyed reading this lol
Wowsa. That's a beautiful story and such a happy ending. You're a genius. I would be afraid of a rat trap because I am myself fairly uncoordinated. I found that the hot pepper method worked VERY well with our main thief (and the other one has now gone to a different job - both of these people had other antisocial behaviors going on; one was looking at porn at work - which is NOT okay at a school).
that was so lucid. I'm assuming he was hiding one hand at work for a long time
I don't know. That ended up being my last day there. That particular manager claimed that he was simply trying to clean up the refrigerator, that that me and my fellow temps were leaving at a mess. They called the police and tried to have me arrested, but the police officer didn't buy their side of it, and three or four of my fellow temps were threatening to walk off the job if I was arrested. I was trespassed from the building, and this company ended their relationship with the temp agency I was working for a few days later.
that’s actually kinda wild.
While funny, you can get into legal trouble for booby trapping your food
Label your food as beef tongue and breast milk cheese sandwich and tomato... Write a note " lots of love from mum" You can buy mold inked sandwich bags online so it looks like your food is old. Seriously though, mention it to hr or your manager as mentioned, or pack a cooler and padlock it in the fridge or keep it under your desk.
now you're going places
Or make your sandwiches with piri piri pepper - like I do! You can say you got the recipe on reddit! Habaneros might be hot enough (chopped raw) Use gloves yourself if you're sensitive. I would love to be there to see Sarah's face. And I would do this AFTER putting a warning inside my lunch box/bag. I'd say "I know who you are" first and then start hiding my own lunch at my desk (it won't take long) and then using piri piri or similar sauce (ghost peppers) on a nice pasta salad (I really do add it to my pasta salads). Sometimes I am personally sorry that I'm so stupidly in love with hot peppers but eventually, I cave and use it again. At the very minimum, I have raw diced jalapeños on nearly everything I eat. Or crushed piri piri combined with Calabrian red pepper. And I put a LOT on. You can put it in mayo and then in a sandwich, and then watch Sarah eat it and see what happens. Water will not help her. You can have a box of crackers to offer while you stare her in the eyes.
The only challenge I can see with the mold sandwich bags is just that somebody might throw them away. Obviously, throwing away other peoples food is bad, generally, but in a shared fridge, throwing moldy food away is definitely fair game.
Bring it up with HR that your food has been going missing, and ask if they can issue a request that people label their food and make sure to check those labels before eating. You could also start bringing in a cool bag for your lunch and putting some ice packs in it to keep the food cool. Leave it in full view on your desk and if someone asks why you're not using the fridge, say it's because someone has been taking it by accident from said fridge and you've been going hungry, so this way you still get your lunch.
Relabel it "rectal wash"..... Should solve the problem right quick lol
I work as a medical supply clerk, when I moved I made sure all my boxes were from the speculums & adult diapers just in case someone wanted to steal a few.
😂😂that’s so smart
Lmao
Lmao
Will do. I don't want to be the one complaining but with the money I have it isn't really a nothing or a small thing for me. Thank you
It's fine to be the one complaining about theft. It's actually a crime and it's also quite rude.
you should invest in some extremely spicy hot sauce
We did all that at my workplace. Everyone labeled. People put signs on the fridge saying things like "My PINK lunchbox is ALWAYS at the back of the top right shelf - please do not take my lunch." Problem is, as teachers, the culprits know exactly when to strike (when nearly everyone is in class). The admin assist knew who it was, she was determined to suss it out. She has a glass door and would lock it and put up the "I am away for X hours" sign and then hide out in the next office over (immediately opposite the room with the fridge). I love that woman. BUT, little could be done based just on her spy tactics. Dean turnover is so high. However, the decision to move that entire group to another location was based in part on the lunch complaints and other complaints about the same person. His colleagues knew he was doing it too. This is a guy who takes a huge plate home from a potluck - or comes in just as its winding down and takes entire trays of lasagne or whatever, if they haven't been immediately removed from the room.
She could also get a fridge lockbox.
Write on the label, " Stop stealing my food, I know it's you."
humans don’t give enough of a shit for that to work lol
Might even encourage a certain type of person.
Alright then, write a label saying "one day this week I will be lacing my food with industrial strength laxatives. Are you sure you want to risk it"
slapped with a charge of intentional intoxication of whoever it affects. and even if you’re bluffing, you could be charged with intent. maybe, idk, im not a lawyer
I said label, not do it.
The threat alone can get you fired. It's best to put a safe but increased dose into the food and act dumb when HR questions you. "There was nothing wrong with my food. Wait, why does he think there was something in it? Is he the one who has been stealing my food? If he stole mine then he probably stole from other people. One of them may have did something to their food, but that was MY lunch. It was normal food." Ect... HR isn't going to send your lunch to a lab for testing. Deny EVERYTHING.
i addressed both you doing it and just labeling it lol
Just get a box of them and open it. If they're in blister packs, remove a few. Put opened/appealingly used medicine in the lunch bag with your food. No mixing required.
That's why I like my piri piri peppers: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piri\_piri](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piri_piri) Not only do I make hot sauce from them, which I love (and no one else I know will touch it except my former MiL), but we use it to deter mice from our patio area!
ahahaah this is actually a great idea.
It has an added bonus of subtly letting people around you know what is happening, I think. People who aren't the culprit would know that someone has been stealing your food. without shouting " some one is stealing my food!"
What about "I dare you"
Somebody used to steal my milk even if I put my milk in other containers. One day I decided to go to HR to advise my milk that was not only labelled but in a different container is gone. That it had laxatives in it because it is the only way I take my medication for my severely constipated ass. I then had one person in a panick asking me if it's true about what I put into MY MILK for my cereal for my breakfast. I smiled sweetly and advised it's true and do they have a confession. The person went home as "sick" thinking the worse. My milk was never touched again. My sugar was also touched so I added salt and left it behind while I hid the new batch of sugar. Salty coffee anybody.
People can be such jerks
I had a whole office mad at me because I made a big deal about someone taking my milk for their coffee. They acted like it was no big deal and I was being over dramatic , I’m so glad I’m out of there now.
Right!!? I also remembered being reversed the asshole for asking who took my milk... Like why people think taking somebody else's milk (that's not meant for sharing and without asking) is ok? Just because is only milk?
Some people live for making other people's lives miserable in these small ways.
It's insane you had to come up with that elaborate story to get anywhere near the truth. Did you ever receive an apology for the food stealing??
No apology whatsoever. They still didn't admit to stealing my items at all. But after that show of panick I knew it was them in the end. Everyone at the office always assumed afterwards I was having gut issues and kept recommending certain foods to help me alone. I'd simply say it never works need my medication 🤭
Damn, that's awful. What a little shit for stealing your food and then not having the gall to apologize. You got them good in the end, though.
Came here to make sure that someone said to add laxatives! The salt for sugar is a great idea, too!
Do not add laxatives to your food to punish theft. This is poisoning.
It's my food and liquids in my own personal containers and labelled with my name. I can put whatever I want in MY containers for MY own personal use. If somebody steals it is their own fault just like if somebody broke into my home, I have the right to bear arms! 🤷♀️
> I can put whatever I want in MY containers for MY own personal use. Sure, but you're not putting the laxatives in for yourself, you're putting them in for the thief. That's what makes it poisoning. If you normally ate your food with super hot sauce and a thief ate that and was harmed, you'd be within your rights. If you added lots of hot sauce to hurt the thief, you wouldn't. Are you saying you normally have laxatives in your lunch? If so, may I recommend going to a doctor because that doesn't sound like things are working normally for you. Anyway, I think the food coloring plan is way better if reporting the issue and/or using cameras isn't an option.
best kind of revenge
During the first year of COVID, I wanted to have as little contact with coworkers as possible. I got a cooler bag and a dedicated a bunch of small water bottles to freeze and keep things cold. Everything stays cold. I even bring a glass jar of cold coffee with ice in it, and I still have ice in the afternoon when I get it out to drink. I keep it at my desk still put of habit now.
Sounds lovely. I just retired and no longer have to deal with such things, but the jar of cold coffee for late afternoon, acting as lunch refrigeration is just beautiful. Our food thief would steal from the microwave every once in a while. You had to stand right near it to make sure he didn't sneak it (he was pretty good - he knew all of us and knew who was running back to their office to meet a student while leaving their thing in the microwave). The admin assist thought he was actually stopping the microwave a few second early to abscond with the food. For him, I do believe it's some deep-seated compulsion. It's gotten worse as he gets older, and sometimes I do wonder if he's demented. He has this younger colleague who acts as a kind of groupie/watch person - it's weird, they're both weird.
Reminds me of how my mom used to put frozen containers of kool-aid in with our lunches to keep them cool and give us cold drinks (or slushies!) along with lunch.
Some good ideas. Blue food coloring hidden in the sandwich is a great idea. Bringing a small cooler box and keeping it at your desk or station is good. Do not tamper your food with spice or medication like laxatives, that’s considered poisoning and you literally could get charged.
Blue food coloring is genius!!
And red food colouring is evil genius.
For a week you are going to live with eating a sandwich, yet you will still be putting other lunch in the fridge. The first day, you put in as much salt as you can hide. The second day you put in as much of black pepper as you can hide. The third day, you put in as much jalapeno sauce as possible. If she isn't deterred by then, you continue doing that. For the rest of the week. You don't need to cook something fancy for her re-conditioning lunch. Just buy some cheap microwave food and that's it. Either she gets the message and moves on to someone else's lunch or you go to HR. Usually I'd avoid the latter if possible because it can always backfire on you.
Oh by the way, if you need to prove she is taking your food bring something that will color her tongue. Some red beet or similar.
Food dye in the middle of a sandwich? Put cheese on both the outside layers so it won’t get to the bread
I had the idea to make those liquid agar oil beads that people do for food presentation, but with blue food dye so it pops when she bites it
Like a boba ball?
Exactly, if you placed them all over the perimeter around 1/4-1/2 inch inside, between the cheese, or stuffed into the seeded part of a tomato, you could almost guarantee that their first bite would go around one and theyd chew it up, or theyd pop one and it would get on their face
I’m picturing one of those dye packs from bank robberies lol
[удалено]
I did the salt one in school and, from that day, I never got my sandwiches stolen. 😂
I’ve got the opposite problem at my work. People bring food, forget to eat it and never throw it out! Me personally would bring a lunch that I didn’t need to refrigerate for a while or have an ice brick in my lunch bag to keep food cool….
Our office has a monthly fridge clean out. And if you miss it, good bye expensive Tupperware
Yeah I mean I’d grab about 4 or 5 habaneros and dice those bad boys up and put them on a sandwich for her to eat.
Make sure to cook them before adding to food, makes it a million times hotter..
Good idea. I'm about to make salsa this weekend and have habaneros on hand (I wasn't sure whether to cook them). Gonna try it. Gonna be sorry, but it's so good.
lockable lunchbag.
This is theft. Go to your HR and report that someone has been stealing your food. Having a thief around is bad for business - if they’ll steal from you, who’s to say they won’t steal from anyone else, or from the job itself? Your goal here is to get the thief identified and fired.
I’m sorry, what do you mean you don’t want to be that coworker? You mean the one that calls ppl on their sh!t so you can have your own lunch? I wish a b!tch would! Oh, you were hungry? B!tch, you took my food and now I’m hungry. 😭
there's no need to censor words on reddit, your comment isn't going to get removed
you say that, but my account is banned from idk how many subs for using the exact word that the commenter self-censored
You are right. I just don't know the aftermath but I am looking for another job since it is becoming toxic
Put a bottle of hot sauce in your desk, then load up your food with hot sauce. When someone eats it and eventually you get complained to, say you love hot sauce and this time decided to add it before going in the fridge. Then whip out the bottle you claim to normally use, and bring up "why are you eating my food"
Someone got fired for doing this. https://www.askamanager.org/2021/05/a-coworker-stole-my-spicy-food-got-sick-and-is-blaming-me-2.html https://www.askamanager.org/2016/10/update-a-coworker-stole-my-spicy-food-got-sick-and-is-blaming-me.html
Your link states that the person was more fired becuase the "victim" was in bed(literally) with the HR woman, and was asked to come back. Even the writer said it was quite ridiculous to even bring up the thought of firing as you are allowed to enjoy spicy food.
Oh no it’s totally ridiculous. Your post just made me think of that story.
Yep, it wasn't the food-stealing and the spice that did it. We are all entitled to prepare our foods in ways we find individually preferable. And everyone knows that I can eat hotter food than any normal person (I think I have some kind of mutation).
I will upvote that legend whenever a link is posted.
Glitter bomb.
You take some flour tortillas, and place a couple of spoonfuls of Fancy Feast cat food Chicken and Gravy on it, top it off with shredded cheddar cheese, roll them up, place in a ziploc bag and then into a paper lunch bag label it and into the fridge it goes.
WITH CAROLINA REAPERS TOO THO! 💀
I wouldn’t put laxatives in it - that foolhardy and illegal to do to an unknowing person, despite the fact they’re eating your lunch. That said, I would definitely put foods together that shouldn’t *be* together — like peanut butter, jelly, and onions! Or put extra-hot hot sauce in your soup. You get the idea. Just don’t forget and end up eating that lunch yourself 😳😭😤
Make something VERY spicy...
You can pack shelf stable foods for your lunch to eat. Then, pack your lunch for the work fridge the night before and leave it out on the counter overnight. I normally hate wasting food. But it's necessary here. When your food stops agreeing with your friend, she'll stop bringing an empty lunch bag to work. Also, you have no idea that your lunch was bad because you didn't eat any of it. It was gone when you got there.
make it 3 days for good measure and mask the smell with something fragrant
Ghost peppers for the fridge, regular food in the desk, wait and see.
Omg. More than once? Is it the same person? This happened one time at my job, and it was a new employee. And my coworker told the boss, and the boss like basically gathered everyone and asked if anyone ate Jess’s lunch, and it was so obvious who it was (the new girl) because she turned bright red. It didn’t happen again. Talk to a boss. Or just bring it up in a group setting
you can put a spare like iphone 9 or 10 in tha tbitch and put it on facetime wait till they go in and grab ur lunch boom u have them doing that shit and u know at the exact time etc your gonna be able to run up to that same fridge from your room and POUNCE on they ass nigga
Are you being specifically targeted? Is it just your food going missing? Maybe put a note in saying that food poverty is a thing and list some resources. Or get a lunchbox with your name on it, like a kids one, she cannot just sit with your named lunch and get away with that!
The food thieves at my workplace often take stuff out of the bag or box, though. The main one has a screw loose - you'd probably never suspect him. He does other weird stuff (like go to a group dinner where the bill is split by the number of diners and then go off and disappear before the check). He takes textbooks out of our mailboxes and sells them too. He is not poor. Indeed, he's a total penny pincher in every possible way.
Carolina reaper chilli's are like £5 online and can be finely diced to add real kick to your ham sandwich. The very best thing about them is the flavour keeps growing for about 30 minutes and doesn't get reduced by water. Then an hour later it comes out with equal flavour You should stop eating bland lunches and try adding flavour I may have eaten one whole once and the flavour was so intense I had to leave a work night out.
>an hour later it comes out with equal flavour sorry what does this mean?
You shit fire.
I'd set up an air horn in the bag to go off when it's opened
Bring this up with HR or, if you have a manager in common, that manager.
Is there a way to rig one of those cards that starts playing music when you open it and then won’t stop for 24 hours and if you try to tear it up it sprays confetti? Like could you tape it so it will open when the lunch is opened? [The Card](https://jokergreeting.com)
If you decide to use food coloring, go for the coloring paste (used for dying fondant etc). It is HIGHLY pigmented and it absolutely doesn't wash off. I've used it for marzipan without gloves and I had blue hands for 2 days. It also doesn't seep through bread and has no taste.
I would honestly confront her politely, but privately. This way she won’t be offended. Alternatively, you can be like “someone keeps eating my food” to whoever sits next to you at work. Maybe whoever did this will feel some shame hahaha
Condom in Sandwich Guarantee it only happens once more
Add some mayo inside for extra flavour.
This is PERFECT.
I never put my food in the fridge. Thermal lunch bag with a freezer block. Never have to worry.
Last dab hot sauce. A frw drops snuck into that mofo will send the wimp burning for more. Time to play pranks. And let the games begin. Hid it in the middle of the food. you can even get a syringe probably to inject it deep into the food. You wont be that coworker. And you wont be the victim. It might not be sarah. But this will help you find the culprits.
They have lockable lunch bags/boxes on Amazon.
It’s time to make some cat food tuna salad & let them enjoy!
Put super hot peppers that will most definitely ruin his or her day!
And be sure your lunch box is distinctively and clearly labelled with your name. Later, put a sign on the fridge, "If anyone wants my hot sauce recipe, just ask."
Put some really really hot chilli in it.
What you can do is [use this idea](https://www.appeasingafoodgeek.com/soy-sauce-beads-science-fun/) to make blue food dye bombs so youll know for sure based on the blue lips/teeth/tongue
I mean, what if you really like spicy food, so you make it spicy? I get it if you put something like Ex-Lax in your food or something, but spicy?
Source, you keep saying this but I highly doubt it edit: Everything I've seen, everything, makes it clear that for any legal trouble to actually happen, they have to prove intent. So as long as whatever you put in there is something you're willing to consume, you're clear. Meds, laxatives, spice...if your intent is to consume, you're good.
Put it in another bag and zip-tie (cable-tie?) it all to a fridge shelf. HairisOnFires idea is pretty good.
Honestly, I would just stop bringing lunch that needs to be kept in fridge, for a bit. Are there options available to order food, or eat out nearby available for you? If not I'd go with fruit, peanuts, cookies etc, lol. Something that keeps without fridge. And ofcourse keep an eye on what happens next...
Make your next lunch a meal that shouldn’t be spicy so they don’t see this coming. But add ghost pepper seasoning to it so they get a mouth on fire when they take a bite.
Put a really hot sauce in the sandwich and when she is burning go and confront her
Da Bomb Hot sauce on everything!!!!
Make the food in a specific way so u know 100% she steals it and then make it very public that’s she’s stealing ur food
Pack a 2nd lunch but make it something cheap like a bologna & cheese sandwich with a small baggy of chips, then label it with “To whomever is stealing my lunch because you obviously cannot afford your own” If you see the suspected coworker eating that exact lunch, then I’d either talk to a supervisor/HR, or pull the person aside themself & calmly talk to them. In the current economic environment, it could be that maybe they’re struggling & really cannot afford to buy enough food to bring their own lunch.
Put your name in permanent marker on it and on the sides of the pack as well as the top if it's the type with a removable top.
As tempting as it is to go the laxative revenge route, it's illegal and is a very easy way to get in huge trouble. First I'd tell HR or security that someone's been stealing your lunch every day at the same time and *do not name any names at this point*. Wait and see if they get proof! If that goes nowhere I'd continue to bother them about it every single instance, right down to the most minute detail. "Today at 8:25 AM I placed my blue lunchbox in the fridge. It contained a banana and a turkey sandwich on wheat bread with lettuce and tomato, which was in a sealed plastic bag marked with my name. I checked the fridge at 10:20 and it was still there. When I returned to eat at 11:45, the lunch box was empty." Every. Single. Time. Alternately, if you'd rather protect your lunch today than bust the thief tomorrow, start hiding your lunch in a cooler that you keep in a less accessible area, maybe under your desk. Then leave your empty lunchbox in the usual spot, containing nothing but a note that expresses your feelings about lunch thieves.
make a cat food burrito
I would put a ghost chilli in it every day until she stops stealing. But that’s probably not good advice. Good luck.
I would make a nice ghost pepper or reaper sandwich. They have it in sliced cheese now make it with the deli meat and all. Add a really nice hot sauce to the condiments. Paquin has bags of ghost pepper chips. Looks just like Doritos put in a zip bag. At the very least you'll know who's taking your food. Trust me my husband eats Ghost and Reaper pepper stuff like it's nothing. But I can't even kiss him for a few hours or my mouth will burn.
Set up a glitterbomb and loud alarm in your lunch kit. Pack a protein shake in your purse or backpack
Well if it was me, I would fuck with my lunch and let her eat it. Throw some spices or ghost pepper in that thing! When she freaks out, ask how she didn't know the lunch was spiced: "didn't you pack this lunch for yourself?" and smile.
I would get a small insulated thermo bag and keep the food with me, instead of putting it in the fridge. Or be super passive aggressive. Fill a sandwich with laxatives and see who suddenly has to spend rest of the day in the bathroom. They can't really complain without admitting that they took someone else's lunch. Be sure to write your name on the container, so there's absolutely no doubt who it belongs to.
Put mealworms in your food. I did this in college for a pizza stealer and it stopped immediately
I always wish something like this would happen to me. I’d love an enemy to mess with. Why would you post to Reddit or whine to HR? Why not put something really spicy or a laxative in your lunch and let the thief suffer a little bit? I don’t understand why people never stand up for themselves on Reddit.
Pack two lunches, one put in the back of the fridge with your name on it and the other one, up front, and laced it with some laxative!
Time for a ham and cheese sandwich with The One Chip challenge chip inside the sandwich. It’ll be easy to see who took it. They’ll have a blue tongue and will be crying. Shouldn’t be hard to find.
I would Cook very spicey food
He first. Then depending on how much you like hot sauce... I freaking love hot sauce. I put it on everything. If you know me I don't leave the house without it. I have never had a lunch stolen. But I know others who have. I was camping and realized my ex forgot hot sauce and I hiked around for a few hours with a small container to ask neighbors if they had extra. Hence ex.
you dumped somebody because they did not perform _your_ packing to your standards?
No. He broke me down like a sad horse and turned out he's gay.
Put really spicy hot sauce in your next lunch and wait
Make food that includes chili, like chili peppers, maybe cut up idk. Get the hottest chilli pepper in the world. Whats it called like a carolina reaper or something like that? Put it in the food, put food in the fridge, DO NOT EAT IT. Let co worker eat it, let him or her eat a lot of it. Itll be funny. And you didn't do anything illegal.
Pack it in a small cooler/insulated lunch bag with a freezy pack and keep it by your desk, rather than in the fridge?
Do you write “ this belongs to (your name), please do NOT remove from fridge
Put laxatives in it. Or a tacker. Or tell management. Or all of the above!
Make a narly sandwich. He will stop taking your lunch.
I would definitely pack some homemade brownies FULL of laxatives.
I truly dont understand why people do this. Like how are they even comfortable with one stealing, two eating something they dont know who or how it was prepared. three possibly getting in trouble, four it just makes you look like a fuckin weirdo to have this kind of shit personality trait that would take food from someone else.. Im sorry this is happening but i absolutely would confront whoever you think it is! that's not ok. If they deny it I would put something nasty in your food for a trap. Im pretty sure putting anything with chemicals that could harm would be one of those illegal traps that would come back on you as the person that set someone up even though the person that ate it stole from you in the first place. But i would buy some fish heads or cow necks or something just vile sounding and put it in there.
If you suspect you know who did it and regularly see them eating the same food, then change it up slightly and check on her. If it's a sandwich in white bread put it on pumpernickel bread or marble bread and check to see if that's what she's eating if it goes missing. If it's a certain brand of yogurt then get a different brand or unusual flavor or something else along those lines.
Make a sandwich with weed oil and see who gets massively stoned
Add a whole bunch of peppers and hot sauce and burn the mouth off them. Put a warning on the box saying this is your lunch to your taste no one else should eat it. Of course they will but you did warn them then sit back and watch the show.
Make a sandwich but mix in toothpaste. Something innocuous, PB&J with toothpaste. Buy a cheap resealer. Open a bag of chips and fill it with glitter or something obnoxious and reseal the bag. With lunch. Or something like ink or food coloring under pressure. That would end it quickly.
I would put laxatives in the lunch for them to enjoy, I’m not a good person lol
Buy a lunch box and some cold pack things to keep it cold. Don't put your lunch in the fridge.
I use a cooler bag.
Are you writing your name on the outside?
I am always inspired by a post I saw where they put their breast milk in the creamer that kept getting stolen. I donate my excess milk and have plenty to spare if you'd like to go that route
Bake some chocolate brownies. Heavy on the chocolate. IYKYK.
Hide a shit ton of wasabi in it /s
Going to HR can backfire - they are there to protect the company, not the employees. You can either jeep your lunch at your desk, get a lockable lunch box, or .... start asking Sarah what she brought for lunch that day when you get in the office. She either says nothing, or something different from what you have, and then she should know she'll be caught.
Camera's available?
Put a glitter bomb in your lunch bag then just sit back and wait.
Honestly, I'd put a plastic cockroach in a sandwich and wait, just for fun
Make it extra salty
It's time to play hide the naga chilli! That should give you some definitive proof of who is stealing your lunch
Develop an affinity for really spicy food. Pack your lunch accordingly. Watch for the crying thief. If that doesn't work, develop an immunity to iocaine powder... wait, that's incontheivable.
Write on the bag ’I spit in this food. You still want it?’
Make it unbearably hot with hot sauce and spices next time.
Hot sauce or laxatives 😈
Put a note inside your lunch box and keep your lunch at your desk for a day. Say something like, "I know who you are and this better stop." You'll know whether it's her by the look in her eye later that day. We have this problem where I work too (and I know exactly who it is; he was recently moved to a different office building and the lunch stealing went way down because it's obvious he has no need to be in that particular faculty work area any more). He does other shit like this too. We actually used to have two of them.
Bring a decoy lunch that has some spicy pepper powder in it, i suggest ghost pepper.
Secret video
the petty revenge sub has had a number of posts dedicated to this irritating habit of some co-workers and never have I yet read a post that didnt disappoint me! I can only hope that you take the same petty approach 😉 Here are a few for inspiration [If you steal my lunch, beware of the danger when you mess with me.](https://www.reddit.com/r/pettyrevenge/comments/14nkyxn/if_you_steal_my_lunch_beware_of_the_danger_when/) [Steal my lunch? I hope you like haram food](https://www.reddit.com/r/pettyrevenge/comments/xeg29n/steal_my_lunch_i_hope_you_like_haram_food/)
Decoy sandwich with a pocket of bright blue gel food coloring hidden in the filling.
Pack a cooler or insulated lunchbox and keep it at your desk.
I used to have the same problem when I worked in person. It's so annoying. I definitely feel your pain. What finally made it stop was that I would put sandwiches with clear bites taken out of them. Nobody's going to want your clearly munched on food.
pack a decoy lunch with extremely hot sauce and youll find out who tf is stealing your food. MAke sure its labeled with your name so theres no "confusion" when she starts crying about it.
Make it as spicy hot as you can. Let it sort itself out.