Letting someone borrow something and having them just help themselves are two different things.

So, what would you do if your manager kept taking something from your office without asking, even going as far as entering when the door was locked? Would you just let it go because it’s your manager? Or would you find a subtle but clear way to stop the behavior?

In the following story, one employee finds himself in this situation and buys the perfect product. Here’s what he bought.

AITA For Stopping My Manager From Stealing My Charger?

My (25M) manager, Mike (45M) occupies the office down the hall from me. He always seemed like a pretty nice guy, and he’d stop by my office just to chat at least once a day.

We had a good relationship.

It all started when, a couple of months ago, he stopped in my office to ask if I had a phone charger, because he’d left it at home by accident.

At first, he didn’t mind at all.

I said, “Sure, I always keep one plugged in by my desk,” and I handed it to him.

He thanked me, used it, and gave it back the next morning because he’d forgotten to return it. No worries.

Since then, he’ll ask to borrow my charger a couple of times a week. I’ll say sure and hand it to him. Lending it didn’t bother me, but he would always forget to give it back.

Then, Mike went into his locked office and took it.

I’d always have to walk down the hall to his office and ask for it back if I needed it. Not a big deal, but a little annoying.

Then, about a month ago, I went on vacation for a couple of days. When I came back into the office that morning, you guessed it, my charger was gone. The thing is, I lock my office every time I leave. And the only other person with a key is…you guessed it… my manager. Mike.

Lo and behold, I walk into Mike’s office to check in, and my charger is there. Plugged into the wall. Charging his phone. He sees me looking at it and just says, “Hope you don’t mind I borrowed it while you were gone,” and tosses it back to me.

Fed up, he came up with a good solution.

Since then, it’s become a pretty common thing for him to just walk into my office, locked or not, and grab it without asking. This was starting to get on my nerves, so I went on Amazon and found this thing called a LockSocket, which locks your charger in place so it can’t be moved or taken.

I got it the next day and it only took me a minute to install it on the outlet in my office.

Since then, my charger is always right where I need it, but some of my coworkers think I overreacted and should just buy another charger.

AITA?

Too funny! But it is easy to see how this was probably annoying.

Let’s check out what the readers over at Reddit think about how he handled it.

This person has a lot of those things in their house.

According to this comment, his boss can buy his own.

As this reader points out, the manager makes more money.

Well, that’s not very convenient.

His manager sounds very lazy, because why else wouldn’t he just get his own charger? Geez.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a carpenter who was shocked to find the police waiting for him after his last day of work.