'She was mortified, caught in the act': Employees Share Satisfying Revenge Stories of What Happened to the Office Food Thief

Author image for Isabella Penn
Isabella Penn
Aug 10, 2024 12:00 PM EDT

Stealing someone else's lunch at work is pretty bold. First off, you could very much be fired. Second, what if you're caught in the act? You would never be able to recover from that. And even if you are a successful food thief who finds themselves constantly getting away with their heists, let this be a warning that all good things must come to an end. Even if no one knows for sure that it's you who's doing the stealing, these employees have found some pretty clever ways of drawing out the truth. Below, office workers share their hilariously satisfying revenge stories after finding their lunches constantly being stolen by an unknown coworker. From extreme hot sauce hidden in sandwiches to laxatives sprinkled in yogurt, some of these revenge tactics may or may not have landed some employees in the ER. And maybe rightfully so - after these petty revenge attempts, you can guarantee that these thieves have gotten their karma and will probably never steal another lunch again. Keep scrolling for the stories of these heroic coworkers, saving employee lunches one thieving coworker at a time.

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  • 01
    r/AskReddit⚫ 19 hr. ago Healthy-Theory6470 People who have had co-workers steal your food, how did you get revenge?
    via u/Healthy-Theory6470
  • 02
    Cocoannut Twirl 18h ago I worked in an office where there was a break room food thief who would not quit no matter how many angry meetings were held about it. For some reason, the thief really liked my sandwiches. So one day, I finally had enough, and I liberally doused my sandwich with the most ridiculously top Scoville rated hot sauce that I could find. Like so hot that the reviews from people who loved really spicy things were saying that they couldn't handle it.
    via u/Cocoannut_Twirl
  • 03
    The thief didn't think anything was wrong, because I often put hot sauce on my sandwiches. We found out who the thief was really fast, because all of a sudden, an employee who I knew did not like me started yelling "Oh my god" again and again and trying to drink a million glasses of water. They never stole a lunch again
    via u/Cocoannut_Twirl
  • 04
    Ok-Cheetah-9125 . 18h ago I never got revenge but I did get him to stop. It was baby sister's idea actually. I placed a clean, still in the wrapper, tampon on the top of the food in the paper bag. He never touched my stuff again.
    via u/Ok-Cheetah-9125
  • 05
    Jumpy-Author-4985 • 17h ago I got tired of having sandwiches stolen so made a turkey sandwich and let it sit on the counter for a couple days before taking it in. Sure enough, it disappeared and someone had to leave early that day because they got sick. Never owned up to stealing it and thefts did seem to stop
    via u/Jumpy-Author-4985
  • 06
    Scared Ad2563 • 18h ago I am a creature of habit and will often eat the same foods for a while before I get tired of them and switch to something else. It was usually a fruit or vegetable, so I kept it in the fridge until I wanted to eat it.
    via u/Scared_Ad2563
  • 07
    One busybody coworker would "help" by cleaning the fridge, but not tell anyone or give warning. Multiple times, she'd throw my snack away (clearly labeled) because, "It's been there for days!" No amount of explaining that I just brought the same snack daily and, indeed, ate it. daily would help. I even started putting the date. on the bag next to my name and she still kept throwing out my snacks.
    via u/Scared_Ad2563
  • 08
    She also was a perpetual dish leaver in the break room sink. Maybe she used the same bowl every day and kept adding more bowls daily, but it really seemed like she would leave her dishes in the sink all week before cleaning them on Fridays before leaving for the weekend. So I started throwing her dishes in the trash can on Thursday.
    via u/Scared_Ad2563
  • 09
    MattyFromTheUK • 18h ago A guy at my old job was stealing food from fridges, and was caught nicking food from the kitchens too (we were a food manufacturer company) Our Facilities Manager locked down his pass key so he couldn't access certain places without a chaperone. Toilet and in-out the building was fine, but the kitchen and canteen he needed to be let in. He left soon after.
    via u/MattyFromTheUK
  • 10
    . GothPenguin ⚫ 18h ago Informed them that my medication was mixed in with my food, told them that I wasn't exactly sure what my seizure medication would do to someone who didn't have seizures and that they may need to visit the ER. Basically I lied. I was on meds and they were the kind that you sprinkled over something soft that you didn't chew to take them but they were in my purse waiting for me to take them with yogurt. The thief had taken my clearly labeled sandwich but left my yogurt alone
    via u/GothPenguin
  • 11
    AJDrake405 16h ago I didn't specially order the food in spite but one day I catered a huge order from a popular bbq place and didn't tell the coworker who stole peoples lunches (more than once from several people)
    via u/AJDrake405
  • 12
    When he came down to the break room and he saw most of the company in there enjoying the food he asked why nobody told him. I looked over at him and said "we've been starving all week because someone keeps stealing lunches from the fridge, you never seem to complain about it so I didn't think you were hungry"
    via u/AJDrake405
  • 13
    radiantraider 19h ago One thing I never understood was why so many HR departments and/or companies (at least based on Reddit stories :-p) think that stealing food from other employees isn't significant. I mean, if they're stealing from coworkers, who's to say they aren't stealing from the company? At the very least, that should be enough for immediate dismissal and criminal charges. Yet, too often, as in the OP's case, they get away with a slap on the wrist. :-\
    via u/radiantraider
  • 14
    shimmering-sunrise • 19h ago Years ago, I was a Dispatcher for a trucking company. Lunches were going missing. A co-worker suffered from a condition of his digestive system that required frequent colonoscopies. As a result, he had access to some pretty powerful laxatives. He spiked his lunch. Sure enough, it went missing.
    via u/shimmering-sunrise
  • 15
    There's a stretch of highway called the 401, and the guy who swiped the lunch was a truck driver. Here's the thing...the distance between exits on that highway is considerable. I guess he didn't make it, as word got around the terminal that the driver basically all over the cab, and had to pay for the cleanup.
    via u/shimmering-sunrise
  • 16
    roguebeam 18h ago I had a jar of jelly beans on my desk. I bought special ones I loved. I noticed that handfuls were missing overnight. I got so tired of it I bought the gross jelly beans that taste like vomit, throw up, ear wax, grass, and other horrible flavors. I put them in my jar and waited. Stopped real fast.
    via u/roguebeam
  • 17
    loztriforce 18h ago . I worked for a family business many years ago, used to have this huge office area, I'd keep Costco boxes of snacks in a drawer. Noticed they were being taken, talked to the owners and convinced them to allow me to setup a hidden camera. Caught a cleaner guy on video coming to eat my snacks, then as he's eating he's looking at my pictures, picks his nose and possibly wipes it on my chair. I showed the video to the owners and the guy was fired within a few minutes.
    via u/loztriforce
  • 18
    No_Goose_7390 • 18h ago I was sitting chatting with someone in the break room. She was eating and I wasn't. She asked why I wasn't eating lunch. I told her because she was eating my lunch. She froze mid-chew. It was beautiful. Not revenge but she was mortified, caught in the act. Now I think about how young and broke we all were and I have a little more compassion.
    via u/No_Goose_7390
  • 19
    • Spin_Me 17h ago We had an employee who stole food & drinks all the time. Let's call her Erica since that's her name. She had a habit of stealing my single-serve yogurts from the fridge. I used a syringe to inject ghost chili oil into a strawberry "fruit on the bottom" cup. What she thought was strawberry "juice" instead made her mouth burn, her eyes water, and made her vomit. I stayed late at the office that evening, fished the offending yogurt cup out of her trash, and deposited it in her top
    via u/Spin_Me
  • 20
    Melodic Calendar_133 18h ago I was having this type of issue and I like spicey food. So I made a roast beef sandwich with lettace, tomato etc and I slathered on horse radish sauce. Just the way I like it. The whole office actually heard the lunch theif scream after eating some of my lunch.
    via u/Melodic Calendar_133
  • 21
    My boss was upset with me for the spicey sandwich. So I asked "Why are you supporting stealing from employees by another employee?" Stealing of lunches stopped. Plus, whenever anyone saw the lunch their in the lunch room, he was watched like he was still stealing.
    via u/Melodic Calendar_133
  • 22
    Dr_Dankenstein5G . 15h ago Found out who did it by waiting until everyone left for the day and walked around the entire office looking in everyone's trash cans until I found remnants of what used to be my $3 frozen microwave meal. It could've been an honest mistake, but I don't even care. The following day I took the license plate off of her car and threw it into the dumpster.
    via u/Dr_Dankenstein5G
  • 23
    BagelwithQueefcheese • 18h ago I followed an example from OITNB. I took a tampon and dipped in food coloring. Slipped it into a decoy sandwich (I kept my actual lunch in my office that day). Right before lunchtime I stood in the alcove near the lunchroom and watched a student slink into the lunchroom and come out with my little brown bag. He went into the student dining area and I followed at a safe distance. The look on his face when he bit into the sandwich and pulled a tampon out of his mouth
    via u/BagelwithQueefcheese
  • 24
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    via cottonbro studio

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boss hilarious employee fired satisfying job malicious compliance revenge work coworkers askreddit lunch petty Office reddit thread Reddit company funny break room employment in the workplace
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