There are a lot of stories on Reddit about people whose food goes missing from the office break room.
There are also a lot of creative ways to go about dealing with things – usually outside the chain of command, since HR washes their hands of the whole food thing.
OP’s husband worked at a warehouse with a manager and one co-worker, very little other staff that they knew. People had an hour for lunch, and once they clocked out, would sometimes leave to grab takeout and other times sit and eat something they had bought or grabbed.
Until April this year my husband, lets call him Mike, worked in a warehouse for a big, international furniture company in southern Germany.
He liked the work, even if it was hard labour carrying 150kg (330lbs for the Americans) pieces of furniture around. Because of this, the staff turnover was pretty high.
One of his colleagues, we will name him Steve, started at the same time as my husband. They weren’t friends as Mike didn’t like him, but he respected him as a hard worker.
Due to customers coming in all the time, the warehouse staff didn’t have required breaks, they just took their lunch break when it was possible.
Some used the break room with the basic kitchen, some went out to eat, go to the supermarket on the other side of the road or did errands in the 60 minutes they had. But either way, you had to clock out and back in.
This will be relevant later.
Food went missing pretty regularly, and this would confuse them, since their breaks were often at opposite times so someone was usually in the building.
Soon they realized that brought in lunches went missing from the fridge in the break room, as did sweets they had bought to share and also drinks.
Since it was rare that two of the workers took their break at the same time, they weren’t sure who stole them. They also were not allowed to bring up a camera.
So Mike and the warehouse manager decided to take matters in their own hands.
To catch the person in the act, OP and his manager hatched a scheme.
Once in a while when it was slow, they decided to order food. Mostly pizza, sometimes burgers. And my husband (me too) loves hot, spicy food. I’m actually pretty sure that there is no blood in him, that has to be hot sauce flowing around :D.
Anyways, we have a nice assortment of powders and sauces, ranging from a little tickling to “will turn your rear in a johnny cash song if you dont get that surgically removed right now!!”.
Hubbs of course had some of the sauces at work.
You all know where this is heading, right?
When the thefts got more and more regular, they decided to order pizza – just Mike and the manager, the others didn’t want to or had something else.
The pies got delivered and smelled delicious. Miraculously, both my husband and his manager were able to take their lunch at the same time and enjoyed their pizza, but didn’t finish it.
Mike took out one of his sauces with a scorching 2 million Scoville (for those not familiar: regular Tabasco has about 2.500-5.000 Scoville) and distributed a generous amount on the leftovers, which blended in great with the red tomato sauce.
Then they left to have a smoke and continue working.
The culprit soon revealed himself. And, since he left to get milk without clocking out, he also found himself fired when he returned.
They hadn’t had a chance to clock in again when Steve emerged from the break room, running for the bathroom, head in a very nice shade of red, gagging.
When he came back out a few minutes later, he was white as a sheet, reeking of vomit and left without a word to get something to drink from the supermarket.
Just then the local stores manager, boss of the warehouse manager, happened to drop by. He noticed Steve is absent and did not clock out – the big no-no.
What nobody knew: Steve had already two write-ups for being absent without clocking out. If you get three write-ups (“Abmahnung” in German) for the very same reason, you can be terminated without notice.
When Steve returned, clutching 3 jugs of milk closely to his chest, the third write-up and the termination was already printed and ready to be signed.
Steve left immediately.
Word on the street is that no food has gone missing at his new job.
He now works in another warehouse, where a good friend of mine is employed, too.
None of their food has gone missing yet.
Does Reddit think these people took things too far, or are they on board? Let’s find out!
The top comment says maybe the saying about revenge should change.
And this person says OP’ husband is an inspiration.
But most people figure the guy got what was coming to him.
People are really going all out for their lunches.
But I suppose that sort of thing does get on our nerves after a while.
Want to read another story where somebody got satisfying revenge? Check out this post about a woman who tracked down a contractor who tried to vanish without a trace.