Hi fish...

I work in a large office, we have about 1000 people in the building. Those of us who pack a lunch (because we can't stomach the cafeteria food ) share fridge space. In the past month there have been notes posted on one of the fridge doors by co-workers warning that there is a lunch thief on the prowl. The victims have gone so far as to leave a glass jar on the shelf labelled : "LUNCH THIEF: Take this money and quit stealing our lunches" and in the jars is some spare change, fast food coupons and dinners mints. In the past I would get a chuckle out the situation....that was until earlier this week when I went to get my yummy ham and Swiss sandwich that I had been thinking about all morning and I had been ROBBED! I was SO upset!

And now I am feeling vengeful.... lol! I've started to use a fridge at the other end of the building, and so far so good, but I can't help but think...... how would they enjoy a yummy looking lunch that had been tampered with....what could I put in a sandwich to give them a big surprise? Then I started day dreaming about baking brownies using ex-lax and watching the halls waiting to see someone running to the bathroom. LMAO!! What would you do??

You could just start a little office rumour that you had done something filthy to your sandwich (the ham & swiss that had already been stolen), then you don't have to worry about actually doing anything bad...you know how fast office gossip travels!

We've had thief problems at our (much smaller) office too, but the fridges there are so nasty I wouldn't use them anyway.

I`v used the ex-lax trick before. when i was in middle school this realy nice guy used to get picked on a bit , and a girl used to steal his lunch every day so i told him next day you bring the chocolate cake and i`ll bring the ex-lax . It worked she never touched his lunch again and she never knew what happened to her.

We had that problem in my old building, luckily I was on maternity leave with my first child at the time.

The best solution? Wasabi - it's that nasal clearing green stuff that comes with Japanese sushi, california roles, etc... Do up a "fake sandwich" - ham & swiss (or something less expensive than swiss - heck, cut your own holes out of the cheese and label it ham & swiss) and instead of mayo, smear on some Wasabi or smear a teeny weenie bit of mayo over top of the Wasabi so they can't tell. God it's powerful stuff.

There's also super-hot Horseradish. Or Chili-pepper paste.

Good luck!

Unfortunately, there are people who actually LIKE mind-blowing hot food

I hate people who steal lunches or other food. When my son's girlfriend was in labour in hospital for 2 days the nurses were kind enough to order sandwiches from the cafeteria for him because he didn't want to leave her alone for too long. They put them in the fridge at the nurses' station, with his name on them, and the first time he went to get one a visitor was happily munching on it in the waiting room. Not only that, the same visitor was washing it down with the pop that still had my son's name on it.

Obviously I haven't got a solution to your problem, and I am assuming the fridge isn't somewhere it can be watched. The next time a lunch disappears you (or the person whose lunch vanished) could try something like spreading the word around the office that "I'm really glad somebody took my lunch - I made an identical one for my friend & she just phoned me from the hospital - she has food poisoning!"

But seriously - if you have a lunch thief, then the person in charge of your office should be trying hard to catch him/her. If they steal peoples' lunches they are probably stealing from the company also.

Here's my solution, and I don't care what anyone in the office says, boss or not. My lunch comes with me to my desk..under my desk in a Coleman cooler I got for $6 at Canadian Tire. I have never ever been comfortable leaving my food anywhere where many other people have access to it. Makes you vulnerable to folks who may have a problem with you...and I mean..gee your name is right on your food. It's like saying...here I am..victimize me.

How about getting a small lunch kit and using a padlock on it?

Hemlock looks like a salad green.

Get to the root of the problem.

I love the ideas....keep them coming. Glad to know the Ex-Lax works...it is tempting. Lol!

I'm not sure where on earth you could get it, but the stuff that a bank puts with the money when a robber steals money. That exploding ink that dyes their skin for days and days. Put in a fake lunch and when they open it it would explode on their hands. Then everyone would know who the thief was.
Or cover the inside of your "fake" lunch bag/container with food colouring or ink....

I work at a law firm and lunches are always going missing. We suspect it must be the lawyers because everyone else has been a victim of lunch theft. One day, someone took the meat out of someone's sandwich and then repacked the bread in it's baggy and put in back in the lunch bag! Can you imagine?! Another time, someone had brought lasagna and someone had cut it and taken half. The other half was put back in the container.

I keep my lunch in my office now instead of in the kitchen fridge. Just the idea of someone pawing through my food makes me ill!

I thought this was a unique problem to our firm. Apparently not. You know, if I thought someone was hungry, I'd buy them lunch. But in our case, its most likely lawyers - who as we all know, have plenty of cash!

Forget hot stuff, do you have any 4-legged pets?

The bigger issue is figuring out a way for him/her to go for the same bag, otherwise your "surprise" may sit there for days, and you'd have to reset the trap every week.

Hmmm...speaking of which, how about a mini-mousetrap in between to slices of ham? THAT would be funny!

OMGoodness.... seems like we all have had this problem at least once.
Where I work this happens all of the time.
One of the ladies that i work with is diabetic, so she was keeping a cooler bag in the fridge with some snacks, and her emergency meds. Sure enough.. the whole bag went missing. She thought she had one-upped the jerk who did it to her, so she put a locker lock on her bag.. nope, didnt work, it happened again!!

I have been a vitim of this twice... Once, my fiance suprised me with lunch. He had bought me a sub. I couldnt finish it all, so I packed it back up, put in my luch bag, and popped it in the fridge. After my shift, I went to get my bag.. and it was empty! Somebody took my 3/4 eaten sub! Its not like it was even a full 1/2 of a sub either.. I had eaten part of it!!!
Another time, I had veggies, and fruit, cheese and crackers... poof.. they all went missing.

Ahhhh, but the good part! ... I have a dog at home... tee hee... this is so funny!! Every so often I buy him these dog treats that come in a tube like polish sausage..... they are called Rollover. I was so ticked off, I cut up a bunch of the dog treats, along with some cheese and crackers that my fiance...lol.. and a couple of his buddies had some fun with (think nose juice...ewe...and toe jam) and packed them oh-so-pretty in a nice display and took them for lunch the next day!

Goodness... if you only could have seen the smile on my face that night when I went to the lunch room, and saw the container that I brought near EMPTY (only a single cracker left) sitting on the table!!!!!!!!!!

Awsome ideas fishies. I'm really going to have to use some for my hubby for his lunches. It sure is amazing how many people go through the whole stolen lunches thing. I'd like to see someone who actually does the stealing to come in here and explain why they do it. I mean, why? I know food is always better when someone else prepares it, but in todays world, can you really trust what someone else makes? Like enchanting's story. That is absolutely disgusting! Good for you and it serves the culpret right for eating someone elses food. I hope that person is a fishy here and reads that post! Did they ever find out what was in those crackers?

What someone should do is put up a sign on the refridgerator door that reads "Some food in this fridge is contaminated, eat at own risk" I think that would stop any culpret from even opening the fridge door to begin with. Plus, you aren't clogging up the company bathrooms this way either.

I would like to throw an apology out there. Sorry to whomevers 'empties' my husband took from the work fridge. He didn't mean to because when a fridge is full of the same grocery bag, they all tend to look like his when filled with two or three empty tupperware containers. I hope they found it the next day back in the fridge ok.

Originally posted by jbarlow ...I'd like to see someone who actually does the stealing to come in here and explain why they do it. I mean, why? I know food is always better when someone else prepares it, but in todays world, can you really trust what someone else makes? ...

I can understand someone throwing another's lunch away from the office fridge cause it's been there so long it's starting to stink, or even if you have a beef with someone to throw their stuff away just to be mean. But for someone to actually EAT mystery food is disgusting! Alot of the people in my office bring leftovers, I can't even eat my own leftovers let alone someone else's, I either give them to the dog or Hubby eats them & if they're not gone the next day I put them in the green bin.

I'm also not able to eat stuff from potluck lunches or other peoples baking & I avoid going to peoples houses for dinner, but I'm a bit crazy.