VENT . . work refrigerator/freezer thieves!

That is awful. I am very lucky that I work with a bunch of people who either go buy lunch every day, or bring their own and pretty much only want to eat what they brought.

Buuuut, my sister is celiac with an egg/dairy intolerance, and she has had people steal her kind of expensive special dietary needs lunches from her work fridge (in a high school teacher's lounge). Why are people so terrible?

this annoys me too! Generally not an issue at my office but I have had a yogurt container taken & a few times I've had people apparently drop my lunch & have it open so when I went to get it I had a grocery bag full of chili instead of a tupperware container of it

We have had a food thief at work so one day last summer when my fresh watermelon went missing I was pissed! I ranted to all my coworkers until one said "oh I think Tim threw it out" ! So I asked "Tim why did you throw out my watermelon?" and he said "Oh that's been there for 3 days!" and I said "NO, it hasn't, I eat it for lunch and bring in another one the next day!" .LOL He's a friend so I felt better but still perplexed as to why the one person who never cleans at work suddenly took interest in my poor watermelon!

A miniature suitcase style lock with 2 crosswise straps seems like it should do the trick. Someone should make Lunch Lock. It would sell like crazy on SkyMall!

Word of advice- never, ever, ever do the laxative thing. You can cause serious damage to someone if they're on certain meds or have a medical condition and you would be charged with assault in that case. It's happened before.

wait a sec that doesn't make sense...why would they charge me if I put laxative in my food but Mr X stole it, ate it and pooped all over.

No that is not true. I disagree b'coz it's crime to steal.

what **** I put in my food is my business.

I'm going to have to agree with this. What if someone stole a homemade meal that had a serious food allergen to the thief in it? Not the food owner's problem. Don't take what doesn't belong to you and there won't be any problem. I say whatever they get serves 'em right for for being a thief.

Get a really nasty coloured plastic container (but make sure it's actually fit for keeping food in) even better if you scruff up the outside a bit (or a lot)

get a marker pen, and write "Urine Sample" on the outside and stick a biohazard sticker on it.

Store your food in that container in the work fridge.

I frequently keep diet soda, cans of sparkling water, and yogurt in my work fridge. After things disappeared a few times, I learned to write "I'm a thief" on the bottoms of the cans and packages. Anyone who steals them won't notice, but if they eat/drink it in front of anyone, they will get very embarrassed.

Buy a thermal lunch bag and an ice pack. Keep it at your desk. YES it's annoying but when I worked in an office I kept my lunch at my desk and my snacks in a drawer after a box of granola bars and my lunch went missing. Never happened again .

^^^ THIS. Let's you skip the food thievery altogether.

I also bring in lots of treats for the office... and stealing from me would bring that to a screeching halt. I'd be tempted to put a note on the fridge "You take my lunch, no one sees homemade brownies in this office again. Capiche?!?"

get a marker pen, and write "Urine Sample" on the outside and stick a biohazard sticker on it.

Store your food in that container in the work fridge.

Oh hell to the no!

If I saw a container in the breakroom refrigerator with the words "Urine Sample" on it, I'd probably throw it away. I don't care what's in the container. That is sooooooooooooooo disgusting, I'm getting the chills just thinking about it. The idea of someone's pee bowl near my milk makes me want to puke.

Reminds me of the mysterious coworker who kept putting his nasty, grubby, sweat stained, cold pack on the ice cubes. Not in a door slot, in one of the bin drawers or on an empty shelf in the freezer, all of which were available. He laid it touching the ice cubes that people used to make drinks. I tried leaving notes asking him not to be such an inconsiderate, revolting pig but he did it a few more times. So, using a hand full of paper towels, I threw the cold pack away on another floor so he couldn't find it.

My technique to try to keep people from eating or drinking my stuff is to tape a post-it with my name across the opening. Any theives have to be pretty bold to break the tape and have a Post-it with someone else's name on it showing. So far, I haven't noticed that anyone has opened or used my stuff since I've done it. I have had people act like it hurt their feelings because I put my name and a tape seal on my stuff, though. Why I should bother them, I don't know.

Had this happen alot at my old workcenter. One time, I came back from a day off and found my entire food cabinet empty, except for $20 and a note.

"Long shift, no cars, no one answering calls, sorry we cleaned you out. Hope this helps."

My new workcenter? Everyone shares the food in the fridge, so if its not fair game you have to send out an email to everyone that says WHY its not fair game.