The office Christmas party is a sacred tradition: drinking with coworkers, gorging yourself on Christmas cookies, and awkward conversation with the employees you never see.

With Christmas bonuses right around the corner, t’s the highpoint of everyone’s corporate year, and so when you mess with it, you risk incurring some serious wrath!

This man’s entitled coworker found that out the hard way when he was caught stealing out of the Christmas Party donation box (How scandalous!).

Check it out for yourself!

Operation Let it Go

My dad just shared a story about my late Uncle Dale (his lifelong friend and fellow engineer). So in his memory and in spirit of the upcoming holidays, I present for you the tale of nepotism, engineering students and Idina Menzel.

Uncle Dale was a senior engineer at a small firm in the Midwestern USA and engineering instructor at the local community college.

He was also (unofficially) in charge of the office parties. To help offset the costs, he had a small tin box on a table outside of his office with a slot in it so anyone could donate money to the party fund.

Everyone knew about it and were happy to donate.

But when Uncle Dale checked the box, he discovered disaster had struck.

A month or so before before the company’s big Christmas party, Uncle Dale decided to check the box.

Low and behold; it was empty. Uncle Dale knew something was wrong because he had seen several colleagues putting money in the box. This could only mean one thing: someone was stealing from the party fund.

Fortunately for Uncle Dale, he soon had his prime suspect.

At this moment, Brad, the owner’s nephew and a fellow engineer, came around the corner…and something about the way Brad was looking at him made Uncle Dale suspicious.

Brad didn’t have a good reputation around the office to say the least.

He had a reputation of being pushy, obnoxious, rude and just plain entitled. Unfortunately, he was not only the owner’s “beloved nephew” but knew how to skirt the rules so he wouldn’t get fired.

Uncle Dale decided to set a trap to catch the thief.

Using his engineering skills, he set up a hidden rig using a hidden doorbell camera right by the box. He then had a colleague loudly brag about how he contributed $100 to the party fund. Then he waited.

He got a notification that the camera was recording…and watched Brad open the empty box, scowl in disgust and throw the box against the wall. Now you’d think this would end with Uncle Dale presenting the video evidence to his boss to get Brad fired but oh no.

But Uncle Dale was NOT letting this one slide!

Uncle Dale then went to his engineering students. He offered them extra credit to come up with a rigged box that would make noise when opened. The more obnoxious the sound, the higher the bonus.

The engineering students had rigged the box with one of those inserts from cards that play music when you open them. By popular vote, they had picked “Let it Go” from the Disney movie “Frozen”…right around the time the song was beginning to become unpopular.

They also managed to ensure that once opened, the box couldn’t close unless you pressed a hidden side button releasing the hinge…so the song would continue to play.

One week later, Uncle Dale set his trap and waited patiently!

Sure enough, everyone in the office heard Idina Menzel belting the hated song and Brad’s frustrated grunts while trying to close the box. One of those attracted by the sound was Brad’s uncle. Finally, Brad chucked the box at the wall, managing to put a good sized dent in it.

The uncle then summoned Brad to his office. Fifteen minutes later, Brad left with a cardboard box and cleared out his desk…along with a note in his file “do not rehire. do not recommend”.

That Christmas, Uncle Dale had a little video prepared to show at the party.

The doorbell camera had caught Brad’s attempt to steal from the box…all to the tune of “Let it Go.”

And so the case of the Christmas party thief was officially closed, with Brad getting caught so red-handed that even his uncle’s favoritism couldn’t deny!

Reddit absolutely loved this story, with this Mom testifying to just how irritating the Frozen soundtrack could be!

But her comment had this Disney fan rushing to defend the musical marvel that is “Love Is An Open Door”.

Uncle Dale’s solution reminded this user of their own workplace’s problem with stealing!

And this commenter wondered why someone with an engineer’s salary would feel the need to take $50 in the first place.

And finally this user pointed out Brad’s stupidity to fall for the same trap twice in a row. Rookie mistake!

Looks like nothing warms our hearts like some good old revenge!

If you thought that was an interesting story, check this one out about a man who created a points system for his inheritance, and a family friend ends up getting almost all of it.