'[I] threw it in a dumpster out back': Employee throws out coworker's smelly sweater, coworkers conducts formal investigation, gets fired

Ben Weiss • Writer and Editor

Aug 27, 2023 4:00 PM EDT

There are various ways to deal with your coworker's annoying quirks and eccentricities. Taking their supplies and throwing them in the trash is certainly not the most adult way of handling things. That being said, this employee seems fully convinced that what they did was the only way.

In short, this Redditor confirmed that the strange odor they were smelling was emanating from their coworker's sweater, which he always kept at the office and therefore never washed. When OP asked the coworker about it, he denied that it was his sweater that was spreading the stench all over their small 7-person office environment. Given that there was no HR in the company and their boss was useless when it came to matters like this, OP knew that they needed to take matters into their own hands.

Somehow, that meant staying late at the office, stealing their coworker's sweater, and throwing it out in the nearby dumpster. Mature? Not so much. Well, what happened next was a bit surprising. The coworker began conducting an investigation in the office with his cousin by his side. Apparently, there were numerous complaints about his sweater so he wasn't able to narrow down who the culprit was. Meanwhile, OP's guilt was building and building. Finally, their boss stepped in and solved matters in a way that didn't exactly absolve OP of their guilt but it did make things easier for them moving forward.

Imagine how much smoother this whole situation could have been if the coworker were self-aware enough to wash the silly sweater and if OP had enlisted their boss's help rather than deciding to be completely devious instead. Keep scrolling below for the full story. For more stories like this, check out this post about a coworker who refused to put on deodorant.