Would you take a bottle of champagne from a drinks gathering?

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Free drinks hosted by an organisation I am member of. This is a very very very wealthy organisation, worth in excess of £500 million.

There were 50 people and 100 bottles of champagne.

As I was leaving I saw a crate of champagne and so nabbed a bottle. AIBU?

Yes, people ARE there counting how many were opened. Usually if waiting staff are engaged they have to count th bottles. For corkage purposes or to ensure that the staff have not 'nabbed' them.

Do you really not know that?

How do you know they weren't going to be given to people who were invited but unable to attend?
Or that not everyone had picked up their gift yet?
Or that everyone else in the room had the same idea as you?
If I were the host, I'd be very disappointed to realise some of my guests had been so greedy. I wouldn't be as generous next year.

I remember being in an executive lounge in a posh hotel once, it was happy hour with free drinks for guests who had access to the lounge. They had bottles of wine out on ice or on the side, beers in an ice bucket, soft drinks in a fridge, things like that. All really nice and you could help yourself and sit down in the lounge with your free drinks and the nibbles they had put out. It quickly deteriorated into people pocketing full bottles of wine to take back to their rooms. Not cool, people...

I would have had one in my handbag and one up my top 😂😂

No. Not very classy OP.

Of course I would take a bottle. I bet more people would than are admitting it here too

Why do dishonest people always assume everyone else is as dishonest as they are? Does it make them feel better about doing dodgy things? There must be some kind of validation for them with that mindset as in wrong-doing is ok as long as everyone else is doing it.

If the OP was so sure it was a gift to be freely taken at will then what was the point of this thread? Why use the word nab?

Yes, everyone that would take a bottle decideding everyone that says they wouldn't is a liar, just to make themselves feel better.

I would not, as I do not drink wine at all. Even if I did, I would not. I probably would have not gone to the event in the first place, as this sounds an awful one and not my cup of tea.

Honestly no I wouldnt help myself, I'd certainly ask if I could take one in account of me being the driver though and hope they'd say yes 😁

@trojanpony your use of pikey is disgusting and verging on racism. Give your head a fucking wobble

I would be too worried I'd get caught tbh

Yabu.

Tbf, I really don’t imagine anything would happen if you were caught

Brilliant! Just got a pic from a friend who was there with two bottles! Classless? She is the daughter of a Lord...

Does being the daughter of a Lord make somebody less likely to steal?

I am honestly cringing for you.

I would and not even think about it!

I need to know what was supposed to happen to the unused bottles. for example:
used to launch ships with?
returned for a refund?
poured down the sink and the empties put out for recycling?
given to the homeless?
kept for next time?
or was it a free-for-all for the last to leave??

I don't think I have enough context to judge whether YWU or not.

Wow, such low class behaviour. Showing you are a thief for a £30 bottle of champagne. I hope it was a set up and CCTV footage gets played back.
Cheap & grabby.

So are you saying it’s ok to steal if you think someone can ‘afford ‘ to lose what you take?

Brilliant! Just got a pic from a friend who was there with two bottles! Classless? She is the daughter of a Lord...

The Lord Archer of Weston-super-Mare?

YANBU. Was it the most ethical thing to do? Maybe not. But I'd hardly call it scandalous or thieving. It's a bloody bottle of champagne, not a Rolls Royce.

I used to work for a nonprofit organisation and had my eyes opened to some...interesting spending practices whilst I worked in the business office, so maybe my opinion's been skewed by that.

To illustrate an example. We were allotted a certain amount of money in the budget for "operating costs" i.e. heating, electric, payroll etc. and "special events and constituency". Bear in mind most of the funding for the nonprofit had come from generous donors in the community. But the executive director would use the money we were allotted for "operating costs" for things like baby showers for expecting staff, meals out and coffee with staff for "meetings", etc. Perhaps the argument could be made that this is staff stewardship and celebration, but it's walking a thin line for "operating costs" IMO.

And we had purchased several crates of wine under the "special events and constituency" budget line for our annual "thank the donors" gala. There were a number of bottles left after the event, and it's a youth nonprofit so we aren't going to bloody well take the alcohol back to the centre, so the director divvied up the wines and gave them to all of the staff and volunteers that had been working that night. We each ended up going home with about 4 bottles.

So I dare say that if you hadn't taken a bottle, the staff and volunteers would have ultimately enjoyed a few bottles at home anyway! And IMO, if they were that concerned about controlling the champagne output, they should have put the crates in an inconspicuous location.

It fascinates me that some posters get genuinely exercised about this. As in, actually, personally pissed off. Why?!? I couldn't give a shit, and I doubt whoever was hosting the shindig could either

oh right - so because she did it and she is the daughter of a Lord - that means its ok? No - that just means you and her are both thieves and yes, it is classless.

Totally agree greensleves. It’s crazy isn’t it?