Members of a popular internet forum sided with one employee who took extreme measures to prevent their lunch from being stolen—again.
In a viral Reddit post published on r/AmITheA**hole, an anonymous Redditor (otherwise referred to as the original poster, or OP) said their lunch was taken from a communal refrigerator on numerous occasions and revealed how a misleading food label stopped the thief in their tracks.
Titled, “[Am I the a**hole ] for labeling my food as having hot sauce to deter food thieves at work?” the since-deleted post has received nearly 11,000 upvotes and 1,500 comments since October 18.
“My lunches were being taken while I was working,” OP began. “So I photocopied the label from one of my husband’s hot sauce bottles and put it on my food.”
Continuing to explain that the label they copied warned consumers that the hot sauce was “one of the hottest … in the world,” the original poster said they were confronted by their employer’s human resources department and accused of “contaminating” the refrigerator.
“They said one of my co-workers grabbed it by accident and was about to heat it when they noticed the label,” OP wrote. “I asked them to produce my container and my co-worker’s container so we could determine how this mix up could possibly have happened.
“[They] came back and said that there had been a mistake. And that the person who took my food had not brought in a container that day,” OP continued. “So I asked if I could file a complaint for someone taking my food…but now my boss has asked me to drop it.
“I don’t know who was stealing my food but it must be someone they don’t want to get rid of,” OP added.
Although recent U.S. Census Bureau data shows that the number of people working remotely tripled from 2019 to 2021, employees across the country are being called back into the workplace, reigniting the conversation surrounding office politics not seen at home.
And while remote employees rarely have to worry about anybody nabbing food from their refrigerators, those who remain in the office aren’t always as lucky.
In 2017, Business Wire published a survey of 1,061 American employees, largely focused on non-work actions inside the workplace.
Amid findings about unproductive meetings and unknown department jargon, it was revealed that 18 percent of employees admitted to knowingly stealing and eating a coworker’s lunch.
Despite a lack of additional data, Evil HR Lady owner and founder Suzanne Lucas told Newsweek that workplace lunch theft happens frequently enough for victims to not be alone, and that those victims should address the issue quickly.
“HR is not the school playground monitor,” Lucas said. “[But] if you’ve tried to resolve it on your own and with your manager’s help and nothing changes, then you can take it into HR.
“There can be serious consequences, including termination for the thief,” she added.
Lucas also maintained that employees should never sabotage their food in hopes of catching thieves, especially with non-food, as severe legal issues can arise.
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On numerous occasions in the viral Reddit post, the original poster made it clear they only altered their lunch container, and none of the food inside it.
“I don’t want to hurt anyone, and my husband’s tolerance for hot stuff is beyond insane, so I did not actually put hot sauce on my food,” they assured.
Throughout the viral post’s comment section, many Redditors defended the original poster’s plot to bring their lunch thief to light and questioned why the crook thought it wise to complain about the alleged contamination in the first place.
“Someone straight up just keeps stealing your lunch…and then they tried to file a complaint against you,” Redditor u/JetItTogether wrote in the post’s top comment, which has received more than 11,000 upvotes. “My guess is that HR is just upset about having to deal with this at all.
“But the fact that you’re at ‘lying about hot sauce’ levels of lunch theft tells me that maybe you’re over this enough to just plain push the complaint through anyway,” they added.
Redditor u/Total-Being-4278, whose comment has received nearly 3,000 upvotes, offered a similar response.
“Someone is definitely protecting someone else here,” they wrote. “Completely 100 [percent] sketchy and there is nothing illegal about putting hot sauce in a company fridge.
“People never cease to amaze me,” they continued. “All this so they can eat someone else’s lunch? That’s a whole new level of sucking as a human being.”
“What is it with people stealing food in the workplace?!” another Redditor exclaimed.
Newsweek has reached out to the original poster for comment. We could not verify the details of the case.
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