Man gets petty revenge on roommate stealing his food: 'I wanted to prove it'

Author image for Remy Millisky
Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Jun 22, 2025 11:00 AM EDT

You never realize how much trust you have in the people you live with until your food or belongings start mysteriously disappearing. 

Some folks get paired with a college roommate or move in with someone new and start to realize that it's not a match. You don't have to be BFFs with your roomie, but there need to be some base rules that you both follow. Some people realize too late that their roommate stays up til 4 AM loudly gaming each night, or maybe they're chronically incapable of washing a single dish. Others refuse to tell their BF or GF to go home, or they never vacate the living room to give others a chance to watch their own TV shows. You never appreciate a good roommate until you've had a very bad one in comparison! 

This person had a fairly common roommate issue: his food was getting pilfered from the fridge. I guess if you're hungry enough, you just think to yourself, my roommate won't notice one missing take-out meal or that ramen packet is so small, they'll never notice that it's gone. When the roommate inevitably does notice, it makes them feel crazy for a moment: were they imagining that they had those leftovers, or did they already eat them? A lot of times, the thieving roommate won't come clean at first. They're too ashamed to admit that they stole. What's a guy to do? Read below to see how he caught the thief, and see if you think the methods were justified.

Next, read about the 33 and 47-year-old couple whose wedding emails shocked their guests (and the internet): "Wedding date changed last minute to a weekday in another state." 

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  • 01
    Cheezburger Image 10519770880
    via Toa Heftiba For Unsplash+

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • 02

    "AITA for switching to regular milk to prove my lactose intolerant roommate keeps stealing from me?"

    Me and 2 other guys share an apartment together and we split all the bills. The only thing we don't split costs on is groceries. Everyone's in charge of buying their own food and we don't touch whatever doesn't belong to us in the fridge. We put our names on everything so no one gets mixed up. This issue has been going on almost a year and I'm sick of it.
    via u/gottmilk_
  • 03
    One of my roommates, R, keeps stealing my food. I get home from work and containers with my leftovers are sometimes missing (they have my name written on it), or my stuff finishes too quick. My gallon of milk for example. I buy almond milk because I like the taste. But it seems to finish after a week even though I've only drank once or twice. I confronted R about this lots of times and that's caused a lot of arguments. He outright denies it and tells me I'm crazy even though it's so obvious.
    via u/gottmilk_
  • 04
    My other roommate and I carpool together because we both work the same early morning shifts around the same area so I know it's not him. It's always after we get back home and R's already left for work that I notice my food's gone. My roommate's also had a similar problem but not as often as I do. I'm guessing cause R doesn't like what he buys. The funny thing is R buys a lot for himself and is even more stingy about his food. He will literally point out what's his when he comes back from grocer
    via u/gottmilk_
  • 05
    The nxt day, Saturday, we get back from work and R is p . He yelled at me that he was stuck in the bathroom for 40 mins with diarrhea because of my milk; he was using it to make a shake. I only responded with "So then you're the one who's been stealing?" He freaking exploded. Yeah he admitted he was "sometimes" drinking my milk and eating my food but he was more mad that I switched milks than the fact that he was caught. I told him I wouldn't have done that if he'd just stopped taking my stuff f
    via u/gottmilk_
  • 06
    My roommate backed me up and thought it was kinda funny he got payback for stealing from us. It's a little tense rn and my roommate told me R is trying to convince him to agree to kick me out. Little does he know we're both looking to move somewhere else together cause we are sick of his st. I told some buddies what happened and a few think I was an assi for that. I feel like I'm not in the wrong here. He was taking my food and not even owning up to it and I wanted to prove it, does that make me
    via u/gottmilk_
  • 07

    Commenters largely sided with the poster

    TN_Yeti 10/10 malicious compliance almost. You can do whatever you want with your milk, like put it in another container. Massive NTA. I wish I was as creative as you when I had a roommate taking my food. You made my day. VI
    via u/TN_Yeti

    After all, if it was that bad, the roommate would be very careful about only eating his own foods. 

  • 08
    Expert-Dress The fact still remains that it wouldn't be an issue if R wasn't stealing. And quite frankly, anyone with serious allergies wouldn't take someone else's food because they couldn't be sure it's not cross contaminated.
    via u/Expert-Dress
  • 09
    elemonated Eh, for some people lactose intolerance can be super debilitating. I had an intern who had that level of an issue, and another coworker later on. Different symptoms for both, but both way worse than my own lactose intolerance. My coworker's I'm pretty sure was an actual allergy he wouldn't get checked out though, tbh. Roommate still got what he deserves!
    via u/elemonated
  • 10
    Jayney__ NTA. As you said if R wasn't stealing your food, he wouldn't have had a problem.
    via u/Jayney__
  • 11
    Cheezburger Image 10519773184
    via No Revisions on Unsplash+

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • 12
    imnotmaria My sister did something similar. She's a fan of spicy food so she always has some spicy salsa around to add to every food. We had a friend who always invited people and used our things and my sister's salsa but denied it. One day my sister diluted the salsa content with garlic, oil and vinegar, they stopped.
    via u/imnotmaria
  • 13
    BlackStarCorona My brother had room mates that stole his food in college. He baked brownies with exlax in them and left them out. The next day he noticed two missing. When everyone was home he said not to eat them they have a diarrhetic in them and are for someone else. Both female room mates in the house admitted to eating them and one missed a final because she couldn't leave the bathroom.
    via u/BlackStarCorona
  • 14
    minosandmedusa Stealing food when you have allergies is especially dumb.
    via u/minosandmedusa
  • 15
    hcp56 NTA. It's your food. You could have put your medicine in it or even your pet's medication in it. You could have put a laxative in it or even syrup of ipecac. And I would still say NTA. When people steal food, lie about it and don't replace it they reap what they sow. Food is expensive, especially milk substitutes. Without replacing the food he was essentially stealing money from your wallet. gottmilk_ OP Oh yeah it really is. I try to buy from grocery stores that sell all organic so it doe
    via u/hcp56
  • 16
    [deleted] How does a person confuse almond milk and regular milk? I would have noticed right away. Almond milk is brownish and thick. It has a completely different taste too
    via u/[deleted]
  • 17
    MalnarThe For the record, that would be illegal, even if they were stealing it and should have never eaten it. r/legaladvice has regular posts about similar topics of f with food thieves, and the general consensus is that unless the food was made to be eaten (when like adding a ton of spice to food, or peeing in it), then it's a crime of assault. Is stupid, but that's the law in the US, it seems. Now, putting dairy milk in the almond milk carton... I think OP could argue that he likes the carton
    via u/MalnarThe
  • 18
    old__pyrex. Yeah he knows what he's doing. I had a few roommates like this - refused to pitch in to share my organic/grass fed / marketing buzzword groceries, and was too cheap to buy it, but would happily eat it over his stuff all day. Like if we had both $2/dozen eggs and my organic pastured $6/dozen eggs, he'd take mine. He's just wanting to mooch and get your good expensive groceries without paying for them.
    via u/old__pyrex
  • 19
    LIKES ROCKY_IV I see your point but I'm pretty sure if OP's roommate is too cheap to shell out for almond milk, he's not going to spend money on a lawyer
    via u/LIKES ROCKY_IV
  • 20
    ohemgeez223. NTA. I read a story from askamanager where something similar occurred. OP liked spicy food and food thief ate it then reported OP to HR for trying to poison him. Eventually OP got fired after HR agreed with food thief. OP got a lawyer and story came out that HR and food thief were in a relationship. Company owner fired both offenders and hired OP back with increased pay. Dude s ks for stealing your food and I would have done the same thing. gottmilk_ OP S that's wild Damm now wish w
    via u/ohemgeez223

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fridge battle drama milk bad roommates food roommates fridge
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