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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To wonder what would drive someone to steal milk?

133 replies

PigFaceForever · 16/02/2022 08:35

I've just cancelled my milkround after getting my milk stolen yet again. I've requested that the milkman puts it behind some bushes as I live on a main road, but he's continued to put it on the doorstep.

So, after it's gone missing yet again, I'm just wondering why someone would steal my three bottles of milk? I'm pretty pissed off at this point.

OP posts:
Blinkingheckythump · 16/02/2022 13:12

[quote BurgerAttack]@MoltenLasagne do you know many foxes who can carry three bottles of milk? Do they use a trailer, maybe?[/quote]
Actually howling

BoodleBug51 · 16/02/2022 13:12

We had our christmas organic veg box stolen. I was furious..... it was around £50 worth and included a cheese box. We couldn't replace a lot of either as we had Covid at the time ........

I had to ring the company and pause deliveries while we worked out where it could be left safely as they deliver so early.

I think people take things just because they can.

TheHaka · 16/02/2022 13:15

The same as what drives a person to steals hotel bath towels.

I'd say it's just an opportunist.

OldTinHat · 16/02/2022 13:16

Not the same thing but I had to buy some milk today because a friend was coming round (I don't drink milk). I had to go to four different shops to find some, this was at 9am. Maybe it was because everyone has had their milk stolen from their doorsteps and had to replace it?! 🤔

HopefulProcrastinator · 16/02/2022 13:24

My parents used to have 4 pint bottles delivered daily to our house there's a lot of us and for a spell a pint was being stolen pretty often.

As my dad sleeps very little he decided to stake out one night with the window open and door unlocked so he could hear the bottle being moved then get out of the front door quickly.

It turned out to be my arsehole cousin on their way back from being a dirty stop-out. They, and my aunty couldn't understand why my parents were pissed off because "they're family". That my parents budgeted for every penny, including the milk we consumed literally flew over their head. My dad had to outline quite specifically what he'd do in retaliation if our milk went missing again...it didn't!

Some people are just cheeky arseholes and 9 times out of 10 theft is because of an entitled opportunist rather than someone in desperate need.

Arabellla · 16/02/2022 13:25

@BurgerAttack

Ah come now, I'm sure that Fieldsville has a bulk order of milk delivered every day for all the grateful whey cheeked urchins on her street, gorbilmey.
Unlikely, the milk of human kindness is something they expect other people to do. Grin
Fieldsville · 16/02/2022 13:26

@BurgerAttack

Ah come now, I'm sure that Fieldsville has a bulk order of milk delivered every day for all the grateful whey cheeked urchins on her street, gorbilmey.
No. I don't drink animal milk.
Fieldsville · 16/02/2022 13:27

Why is it such a ridiculous thing to help a stranger?

Arabellla · 16/02/2022 13:27

But maybe the urchins and cats near you do drink milk, Field? Get that milk ordered.

WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll · 16/02/2022 13:27

We had milk wars on our street. Turns out a competitive company were stealing it then weeks later targeting the same area to see if people wanted them to deliver milk.

But even leaving aside the criminal 'ethics' of that behaviour, how does it make any business sense? If the householders know that their milk from Company A is being stolen, but don't know that it's Company B stealing it, why on earth would they switch, in the crazy belief that the thief would only steal milk delivered by one particular company?

Was their ruse hoping that people would think Company A had been unreliable and was missing deliveries - rather than it being stolen after being delivered? Surely people wouldn't just pay the bill anyway, without disputing that the milk had never been brought?

Tradesmen can sometimes be unreliable in never turning up for a job or quote when they say they will come - but they don't usually bill you for their no-show.

Arabellla · 16/02/2022 13:28

@Fieldsville

Why is it such a ridiculous thing to help a stranger?
Have you ordered the milk for the local urchins then?
Fieldsville · 16/02/2022 13:29

I haven't ordered milk for the 'local urchins' as there aren't any around here.
But have you never done anything for someone else you didn't even know, to help them out? I'm sure you've given to charity?

Tilltheend99 · 16/02/2022 13:31

@Ponoka7

Where I live they steal because it's a way of life. If it was desperation, they only take one, not three.
This is an interesting point.

7 or 8 years ago it was common for on pair of knickers etc to be missing from a supermarket multipack. I can tell that things are getting really desperate for people again now because I saw someone had taken one pair of baby tights from a three pack the other day.

If they wanted to steal to sell on or for the thrill they would have nicked the whole pack so definitely an act of necessity/desperation.

Arabellla · 16/02/2022 13:33

@Fieldsville

I haven't ordered milk for the 'local urchins' as there aren't any around here. But have you never done anything for someone else you didn't even know, to help them out? I'm sure you've given to charity?
What, no cats either? Foxes? Why not pour them a bowl every morning?
Fieldsville · 16/02/2022 13:34

I leave food out actually. I wouldn't want the hedgehogs drinking milk by mistake.

WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll · 16/02/2022 13:35

Why is it such a ridiculous thing to help a stranger?

It's a lovely thing to do, if you can be sure that you're helping somebody genuinely in need - although, even then, you can be making a rod for your own back, and personally, I'd much rather come to an understanding with them that I would deliberately leave it somewhere safe for them, rather than let them go on feeling the guilt of thinking that their poverty had made them into a perpetual criminal.

The big problem is in identifying the genuine person, though, and being sure that an opportunistic thief hasn't beat them to it. You wouldn't leave a £20 note sellotaped to your front fence with a sign saying "Only take this if you are in genuine need" and naively expect everybody else who saw it not to help themselves anyway.

EveryFlightBeginsWithAFall · 16/02/2022 13:36

@forlornlorna

Op when I was a kid I used to steal milk off of steps. We were starving. Our parents were addicts. I'd rotate who I stole off (just a pint) so I hopefully didn't get caught. Then suddenly milk started to appear on our doorstep most days along with a loaf. Milkman had rumbled me and was a kind man
This is so sad but what a lovely kind milkman .

My grandad used to do similar as an ice cream man back in the day when he should milk , bread and other stuff

EveryFlightBeginsWithAFall · 16/02/2022 13:36

*when he sold

WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll · 16/02/2022 13:44

This is so sad but what a lovely kind milkman.

I'm sure his kind heart was in the right place in helping neglected children with nowhere else to turn (although anonymously notifying SS might have been a more helpful response); but his thoughts were surely also on protecting his business. However genuine the reason for its disappearance, customers having their milk regularly stolen, and thus their supply being unreliable, would be cancelling him left right and centre. Much easier to write off one pint a day than have to deal with (and losing) angry customers on a regular basis.

Dinotruxagain · 16/02/2022 13:45

Ah, 30 years ago I was the kid who stole the milk, and the loaf that were left out for deliveries.
We were in dire straights and it was all myself and my sibling would then eat for a few days. (It was sheer desperation in my book and I saw 'the big houses' as able to replace it.
This was early 90s and I was not even a teen yet.)

Sorry to the folk who's milk I stole and I can say that I grew up to be able to feed my house via work.
I really hope we're not back to that level of desperation for people again but I fear we are.

Arabellla · 16/02/2022 13:50

@Fieldsville

I leave food out actually. I wouldn't want the hedgehogs drinking milk by mistake.
Yep, I'm sure that's why.
Spaghettio · 16/02/2022 13:51

@JoBrodie

I have a lidded metal bread bin outside my house for the milk to go in. This was actually to stop foxes ruining it, but might discourage the thief if they have to open a lid (noisy) to collect the milk.

Of course it's possible that they'll just pick up the entire container!

In attached pic you can see how bold the fox was (tip of my foot at the bottom of the photo) but the milk is now safe, until evolution produces opposable thumbs that is ;)

Jo

I love that you've blacked out the foxes eyes to maintain his privacy! 😂
TyrannosaurusRegina · 16/02/2022 13:53

@JoBrodie

I have a lidded metal bread bin outside my house for the milk to go in. This was actually to stop foxes ruining it, but might discourage the thief if they have to open a lid (noisy) to collect the milk.

Of course it's possible that they'll just pick up the entire container!

In attached pic you can see how bold the fox was (tip of my foot at the bottom of the photo) but the milk is now safe, until evolution produces opposable thumbs that is ;)

Jo

I love how his eyes have been blanked out to conceal his identity 😂
Macademiamum · 16/02/2022 13:55

I used to know a couple of kids who were poor and neglected they would wake up early morning because they were cold and/or Hungry then go on the milk runs, two boys together looking out for each other (not related to each other just friends with crappy home lives). The school used to feed them toast and let them use an on-site washing machine so they had clean clothes to wear. Then they would get toast or cereal through a breakfast scheme at school and free school lunch. But come 3 O'clock they had nothing and no one to turn to if they were hungry until school started again. Just other people's milk and orange juice.

wanttomarryamillionaire · 16/02/2022 13:56

@BobbinHood

More likely to just be because they’re cunts than because they are Oliver Twist.
This