I worked nights and was dieting, I brought really big salads (yes I’m a mumsnet cliche 😂) to work with olives, feta, grilled peppers, home made humous, capers and roasted new potatoes or deli meats, pickles and cheese.
Other staff members commented on how nice it looked but then suddenly my lunch boxes started going missing.
Everyone denied it but it coincided with a new staff member starting, for the sake of this I’ll call her Vicki - it’s also her name and if she reads this I hope she recognises herself as a thieving little cheapskate.
I got sick of spending all night on a 12 hour shift with no food, all the shops were shut and I didn’t want to order a takeaway when I had spent considerable time preparing my meals!
I bought a George Foreman grill and griddle and put it in the staff room and said others could use it as long as they cleaned afterwards.
Vicki admired it and said she fancied getting one for herself and said she’d seen one in the sale on Amazon.
I bought mine from Argos because although it was cheaper on amazon I noticed a lot of reviews saying the griddle had stopped working.
I still had my food going missing but a lot less since I’d ordered the grill, it was easier to nick a ready prepared meal rather than ingredients that needed the effort of cooking.
I came in for my shift after two nights off and went to grill some chicken for a salad, unfortunately the griddle had stopped working.
I suspected Vicki had ordered hers off amazon and swapped mine with hers unfortunately I couldn’t confront her without proof.
I asked the security guard to check the CCTV footage of Vicki leaving and arriving on my days off, lo and behold there was footage of her arriving early carrying a box and then later leaving holding a grill!
Management asked me to just let it go when I complained and asked if I could just return my grill if it was under warranty. We had a big argument and they weren’t happy I wanted her holding to account but they asked me to keep it quiet from other colleagues to prevent the possibility of bullying.
In the end she just got a slapped wrist so I handed my notice in and got a much better job.
I did tell Vicki I knew it was her and had seen CCTV footage of her swapping them, she refused to admit it and said she’d brought hers in to compare it to see if they were the same model!
It was an obvious lie but unfortunately CCTV didn’t show her actually swapping them and she wasn’t going to back down.
The little thief finally got her comeuppance when she continued stealing food until she had a severe reaction from ingredients in else’s meal and had an allergic reaction and had to finally confess she’d been helping herself to identify the allergen.
Everyone knew it was Vicki all along but I wish I’d been present to see her fess up after months of denying it.
She left a few weeks later after being teased mercilessly, I still don’t think she was officially punished though.
I don’t know what causes people to feel entitled to other people’s food at work, I’ve experienced it in a few jobs. Reading some of these stories though it’s prolific.
Stealing is stealing and stealing other people’s work meals is as low as you can go, you are stealing time, ingredients when food isn’t cheap and leaving the victim either spending more money to replace it or going hungry.
I heard a rumour that Vicki has had her lunch stolen a few times in her current job, I know it’s mean but I really hope it’s true.