'Someone is drinking it without shame:' Coworker comes up with perfect concoction to catch the office iced tea thief

Author image for Elna McHilderson
Elna McHilderson • Managing Editor
Sep 12, 2023 10:00 AM EDT

There is a lot to be annoyed about when working in an office, but one that is a common occurrence to many is an office fridge thief. Sure, it's a shared fridge that everyone in the office uses, but that by no means declares all the food in there to be shared amongst everyone in the office. Usually these fridge thieves are so audacious that they don't even care if there is a name on the item. You can straight up ask the office to please stop taking your lunch or whatever and you still will get ignored.

Usually, upper management doesn't get involved in these sort of acute office annoyances, which makes it even more annoying. But that also gives you room to deal with it on your own. The question then is, how petty are you willing to get? 

One office worker was able to resolve the problem of their ice tea getting stolen. They tried all the passive path at first, labeling that the tea was their's, drinking it straight from the bottle in front of all the other employees, and even going as far as drawing a level line of the liquid. And yet, someone kept drinking his iced tea. He literally even went around and asked everyone who is drinking his tea and to please stop, but everyone played dumb. 

So he took matters into his own hand, and replaced the iced tea with very salty water (and syrup to make it look like iced tea). Then, when the culprit drank it he immediately started gagging in the office and everyone knew who the thief was immediately. You better believe he got called out! What would you do?

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  • 01
    Tableware
    via Terence T.S. Tam via Flickr
  • 02
    Font - Posted by u/Lillcs 2 days ago Not your tea At my last office job, I used to bring a 1,5L bottle of ice tea with me, and I drank that for a few days. I kept it in the common fridge. Soon I noticed, I'm not the only one consuming it.
    via u/Lillcs
  • 03
    Font - I started drinking it in the all- morning-meetings, staff straight from the bottle AND also writing my name all over the bottle. (Trying to make it obvious, it's mine) I still notice, every day, there's a bit missing.
    via u/Lillcs
  • 04
    Font - I started drawing a line marking the level of fluid all around the bottle with a permanent marker. Still, someone is drinking it without shame.
    via u/Lillcs
  • 05
    Font - I had no idea, who the coulprit was. I asked around, but most of the office staff didn't speak English (or our country's language), so that was a dead end. So one day I emptied out
    via u/Lillcs
  • 06
    Font - the bottle, replace it with water and put a shton of salt in it, and just a bit of syrup for coloring. It perfectly matched the color of the strawberry green tea that was originally in the bottle.
    via u/Lillcs
  • 07
    Font - Unfortunately I was not there, but my friend was, when one of the "no-languange-speaker" guys drank it straight from the bottle, and that he almost threw up.
    via u/Lillcs
  • 08
    Font - He asked: Who drinks this sh? My friend said: Definitely not who's name is written on the bottle...
    via u/Lillcs
  • 09
    Font - Kinsfire 2 days ago I always loved how the food stealers get OFFENDED when you end up pointing them out, because it's apparently their right to eat whatever they want to, no matter who bought it.
    via u/Kinsfire
  • 10
    Font - squirrellytoday. 1 day ago I always "love" the reply of "I didn't know it was yours". That's nice. But you DID know that it wasn't YOURS and yet you nicked it anyway.
    via u/squirrellytoday
  • 11
    Font - DrcspyNz 2 days ago LOVE IT great revenge. I recall at my work place there was always about 5- 6 of us in the Lunch room.
    via u/DrcspyNz
  • 12
    Font - One of the guys ALWAYS brought a boiled egg and his mate scrounged it off him every day. One day Trevor got his egg out of his lunch box, Mason held out his hand for it and Trev tossed it to him. Mason
    via u/DrcspyNz
  • 13
    Font - caught it then tapped it on the top of his head to crack the shell - BUT - IT WASN'T boiled. Sh we all cracked up laughing as egg poured over Masons head, and Mason NEVER scrounged another egg from Trev!
    via u/DrcspyNz
  • 14
    Font - Helln_Damnation 2 days ago It's disgusting that he drank straight from the bottle and presumably put it back for you. He definitely deserved what he got.
    via u/Helln_Damnation
  • 15
    Font - OmegaGlops 2 days ago . Oh my goodness, the audacity of some people! You went full-on detective mode and I'm here for it. It's a shame when you can't trust co- workers with basic etiquette. The salty
    via u/OmegaGlops
  • 16
    Font - revenge must have been sweet for you! It's sad that you had to resort to this, but at least it got the message across. Hopefully, your tea remains untouched from now on!
    via u/OmegaGlops
  • 17
    Smile - Exploding_Muffin. 1 day ago Salt is nicer than some people who would've dump jalapeño juice or something in.
    via u/Exploding_Muffin
  • 18
    Font - KitFan2020 1 day ago I label the drinks I keep in the work fridge: 'Please don't drink - contains MiraLAX Powder for medical condition'
    via u/KitFan2020
  • 19
    Font - Toothless Feline. 1 day ago People who steal food or drink from coworkers belong in the Special Hell, with child m.iesters and people who talk in the theater.
    via u/ToothlessFeline
  • 20
    Font - (0 CaissaIRL 1 day ago OH. He was drinking STRAIGHT FROM THE BOTTLE. This can to some degree be an actual issue cause of stuff like disease. You could've gotten something from him. No idea what but maybe watch out a bit.
    via u/CaissaIRL
  • 21
    Font - Bigstachedad 1 day ago We've seen many stories about people eating their coworkers lunches, snacks, drinks, etc. Is it some sort of "I'm so clever I can get away with taking what is not mine?" It's not someone who can't afford their own food/drinks, usually it's a person who can pay for their own food. Just a jerk move.
    via u/bigstachedad

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office-fridge-thief failblog funny-employee office-food-thief workplace Reddit workplace-revenge
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