Pack your lunch in a container with an ice pack and keep it on your desk.

what? no mention of the mold print lunch bag?
http://www.trendhunter.com/trends/anti-theft-lunch-bag-sherwood-forlee

my boyfriend writes "control group A" on his brown bag lunch :)

A friend of mine in a college dorm was baking a cake for her class. She cut it and let it cool in the kitchen while briefly stepping out. When she got back, some pieces were missing. She sent an email out over the dorm listhost saying she hopes whoever stole the cake enjoyed it, but they should know it was for her bio class and was baked with ground mealworms as part of a demonstration. It actually was baked with mealworms, and I imagine the culprit felt disgusted in more ways than one upon reading.

Also make sure to write your name on the bag. On the off-chance that someone's spouse packed a lunch for them in a similar, it could have been a case of mistaken identity. You open the fridge, you see what looks like your bag, the co-worker has no idea what the spouse made them, and then poof, your lunch is halfway to someone else's colon.

This happened FREQUENTLY at one of my old freelance jobs. There were a lot of delivery people and vendors who would frequently come into the office (as well as a second floor of the company directly under us, who not many people on our floor knew).

About once a week or so, someone's lunch would magically disappear.

When it happened to me, I quickly marched up and down each row of cubes throughout the entire office looking to see if someone had taken it. No one did, and I even had people helping me.

Instead of my name I like to write "NOT YOURS"

Happens a lot at my workplace. I once had a piece of leftover frozen pizza taken -- I had brought several slices in knowing I'd have to work through dinner. Also had a partially eaten container of TJ's Greek yogurt taken -- who would want to take something someone else may have eaten out of??

I find writing my name in permanent ink in several places on the container helps. Or bringing food that no one else would want to eat :)

I like to stash at the back of the fridge if possible, most people go for what's in front and easy to grab.

But, I agree with the first post, if it's a problem at your office, keep it at your desk.

I have worked at many different offices and they are all very different in terms of fridge/lunchroom dynamics. I even worked at a place that had permanent placards affixed to the microwaves that said "No Fish." They weren't messing around at that place!

I'm kinda hungry today. Maybe I'll go through the fridge and see if there's anything interesting.

kidding.

We solved this problem at work. We told the main culprit that we had planted a decoy item in the refrigerator that was loaded with Ipecac solution. When the person would swipe the food and eat it, they would immediately puke up everything. No one knew which item was loaded with Ipecac. Not only did we catch the culprit, we had the evidence too.

A previous (and better compensated) employee used to steal food from me. I finally caught him in the act and then sat him down in my office and logged onto my checking account, to show him the balance of $10. He never stole from me again.

Also had a partially eaten container of TJ's Greek yogurt taken -- who would want to take something someone else may have eaten out of??

Ok, but really? Maybe it looked nasty and someone tossed it, esp. if it was all lonely.

I pack my lunch in a bright pink Disney Princess sparkly lunch bag. I'm in the Army; I guarentee you no one but me touches that bag. Thieving problem solved. ;)

The best deterrant I ever saw was at my old company. A guy there kept his own milk in the fridge, with a note stuck to it that read, "I drink directly from the carton."

@ little_melly, lmao!!

I don't know what the solution is. I only share a fridge with a few other people at work, and nobody touches anybody else's food. I think the best idea from the comments is to buy a lunch bag and an ice pack and keep your lunch with you. But that depends on how much space you have at your work station/desk/etc.

This is similar to some of the previous posts, but when my mom was in college she stole someone's salami from the fridge only to come back to find a note that begin with somethint : "To the person who ate the medicated salami --" Not only was my mother humiliated, but she was then totally paranoid that she had ingested some kind of prescription medicine. So perhaps writing some kind of note with a phony medication name and dosage on a container/lunch bag would be a good deterrant? Or maybe just "contains prescription medication, please do not take."

Oh, and an actual lunch box/bag, instead of brown paper or plastic would probably help. Usually thieves want to get in and out quickly, so if they have to pull out a bag, unzip it, then rifle through the contents, it might take too much time and increase the risk of being caught...

Solution: Eat food that no one else wants.

I'm a fan of supposedly "weird" foods like fish and whole grains and vegetables. People here like Lean Cuisine and Hot Pockets. No one touches my food.

I was thinking the prescription medication thing would work nicely....

I know of someone who got so angry they started planting sandwiches made with cat food in the fridge.

The moldy lunch bag is pretty funny, but I think you would run the risk of having someone throw out your lunch, rather than eat it.

I am a stay at home mom - I don't have this problem... trust me I have others (five boys and one toilet - say no more)!!! But this is an intriguing read!! I just love little_melly's response!!! Surely there are some thieves out there who could respond and say what deters them!!!

Brown paper bag, written on the outside with a sharpie.

"Specimen for Dr. Goodman"

Might help with this problem?

Chocolate chip cookies ExLax = NO MORE STOLEN SNACKS.

I am super amused by all the sneaky lunch thief-deterrent stories - the moldy bags and Ipecac and medicated food especially.

I don't currently work in an office but if I had to deal with a lunch thief, I think I'd go straight for the ipecac method.

My dad used to take a 1 L clear plastic container of milk for his coffee at work into the work fridge but people kept helping themselves to it.

Until he wrote "Sperm specimen" on the container.

This post is cracking me up!

I'm particularly fond of the Coke Zero spy cam...

I've said often that someone needs to market an office building refrigerator that has separate locked drawers.

My strategy for the dorm kitchen was to write "Bio Experiment" on it. Usually got left alone. The one ploy I've been wanting to try FOREVER, is to write "Social Experiment" on a container of cookies and see what happens. Would you be more or less likely to swipe food if you felt like you were expected to?

@MFalk...awesome!

@little_melly: That is awesome!

I saw a bunch of lunch thief-themed notes on the passive agressive notes website and couldn't believe that many people would steal food! Now this! In my lengthy working life, I've never had anything stolen and never heard that anyone else's food was stolen. I've worked in Arts Admin. for non-profits. You would think that would be worse since we are grossly underpaid. I keep salad dressing at work and other people use it but I don't consider that stealing.

I agree with heather77, when I've eaten stuff thats 'unpopular' it rarely got stolen. But on the first occasion when something was, I established a standard - literally visited every single office at my company and told them that someone stole my lunch and i was checking ALL and every garbage can...that pretty much put a stop to anyone nicking my food as they knew I was going to come for them if they took it.

saer
http://cravenmaven.wordpress.com

I've never encountered this before, but my husband just told me a story about a guy who tried to take his lunch out of his hand. What the--I don't get it. I probably would've done what he did (grab the guy by the wrist and shake the lunchbag loose again, then tell him off for thinking there's something acceptable about stealing someone else's lunch and point out that since he forgot his lunch, there are plenty of people around that if a few shared, he'd probably have more for lunch than the rest of them).

Well we were eating paella and my friend had a substantial amount left in her plate when we had an emergency on the unit (we work in a hospital) and had to abandon our lunch and run to the floor. After the emergency we returned an hour later and her plate was still there but all the food on it was eaten except for a few shells. Who would do something like that amazes me.

While laxative and ipecac suggestions are funny, I've read on other sites that you could get in trouble for food tampering or poisoning. (I am not a lawyer.) Even though the person is stealing it, you still took food you knew someone might eat and made it so it would get someone sick.

A better suggestion is to do something like spike your tuna salad with diced serrano peppers and/or lots of cayenne. Do something where it's still edible (and you conceivably could have eaten it yourself), but would be unpleasant for a lunch thief.

This happened a lot at a place I used to work. Like A LOT. Like someone stole a whole sheet cake out of the fridge that was to be used at a lunchtime retirement party. (and purses and backpacks and money were also stolen. and there were racial slurs written in the bathroom. it was great place to work.)

My co-worker figured out the second best thing to do... write the Director's name on all his food. He knew no one would steal from the big boss. Of course the best thing to do was to keep your food in your locked desk drawer. It was a ridic place to work.

@heather77: ah, it's nice to see another of my tribe! My variation (veganism) works well, too. Heh. If the Hot Pocket-eaters only knew how much better the "weird" stuff is!

Y'all might like Passive-Aggressive Notes -- they get a lot of these, with some fun solutions now and then.

@567Kate: eh, there are lots of people who'd still take the chance -- what are the chances that the vomiter would actually file charges, then the chances that the first judge wouldn't laugh and throw them out, then, failing that, that a judge or jury would actually find for the plaintiff? Seems highly unlikely, esp. since most of us have had something stolen from us at one point or another.

I had a coworker or coworkers who would steal just parts of coworkers' refrigerated lunches. She/he/they would put back what wasn't good enough, occasionally with a visible test bite missing from it. You never knew what had been done to your lunch before you retrieved it, even if it looked untouched. The buffet-style thefts continued for years, and no one was caught. What makes all of these stories even funnier is that as soon as I could quit that job without crashing financially, I did. Thank you, God!

I use the Little_melly decoy too. My lunch bag is a handmade by me bag with horrible smiley faces all over it. EVERYONE in the building knows this is my lunch bag and the only time I've ever had a problem was when I didn't use it. Heck, even the cleaning people leave my lunch bag alone when they're chucking other people's lunches!

In the police blotter in the local paper I once saw 'Petty Theft - $10 at the University Vet Clinic' it went on to describe the contents of a lunch box.

Thanks for the tip. The Passive Aggressive Notes site is very funny. I saved its link to my LinkStash humor folder.

love these stories

We don't have much of a theft problem at my office because it's rather small, but I always label my things nonetheless. What's worse here though is the way people treat communal food. We get bagels and muffins every Monday, and often have meeting leftovers and these grown adults pick at the food like little children. There will be 1" round pieces torn form bagels, muffins with just the top gone, sandwiches with the insides gone and bread left, etc. It totally baffles me that grown adults act this way.

Yes, I had a coworker who would go openly through a box of chocolates intended for the entire staff. She'd poke a fingertip in promising chocolates until she found the fillings she preferred. She left the broken rejects in the box instead of discarding them. Of course, no one else ate the ones she'd smashed. In effect, she'd get most of the box.

My coworker did that years before the movie came out in which a character did the same thing in order to find nonexistent nut fillings. The character unthinkingly destroyed her sister's only birthday gift, a box of cream-filled chocolates. If I hadn't witnessed my coworker's behavior, then I would have thought that that scene was absurdly unrealistic.

I'm glad everyone is enjoying my Disney Princess bag. As soon as that thing comes out of the fridge, it is noticed - you can be 20 feet away and still think "What the HELL is THAT? Is that REALLY a princess bag?" - although some people think it's a Barbie bag. Pfft. AS IF. Trust me, no one can touch it without being noticed. ;)

I feel that folks over-refrigerate everything. I bring my lunch and let it sit on my desk until lunchtime. Nothing I am bringing is going to go bad by being at room temperature for a few hours. (Then again I don't start work until 10 so my lunch is really only out of the fridge for 4 hours max).

I also really love these tags from Etsy: http://www.etsy.com/listing/43461444/lime-mao-mao-the-cat-lunch-bagbox-tag

One place I worked (a fast food place actually) someone kept stealing teh pregnant girl's lunch. This problem reached managment and when the person who was doing it was found out they were fined and fired..

I used a bag with two zippers and pit a small lock on it, i never had anyone steal my lunch!

I work in a very small office - 5 of us total. And 2 other people; 'tenants' that rent a room in the back. We share 1 small kitchen with a single under counter fridge. Aside from the tenants, who mostly keep to themselves, I am the only employee that is not a family member. We've got Mum, Dad & 2 Sons - both of which are 40 .

Despite this Mum buys most of the food for them for the week, makes them sandwiches at lunchtime and even though she's semi-retired, makes sure theres food in the fridge for them when she's not going to be around.

What this means for me and the tenants is that for years they've operated on a 'if its in the kitchen, its ours' policy. No regard for who bought it, where it came from or whether its a meal directly tailored to the needs of, say, a lactose intolerant vegetarian.

I did go a bit nuts a few months ago when someone actually threw my lunch out i'd bought in that morning. When i found out who the culprit was (Mum) i was met with a blank stare and the explanation "I didn't think it looked very nice" (it was an onion bagel - i have since realised she might have thought it was an off donut...)

Don't put things in food like ipecac or spice powder or anything like that - it's illegal. Assault - even though the person stole the food knowing it wasn't theirs, it's not safe legally to do this.

... ever notice how finely diced habanero looks almost exactly like the little orange fish eggs (tobiko) that you can find on some types of sushi?

... I think it would be pretty easy to find out who was stealing your lunch. Just be prepared to tell a judge with a straight face "That's how I always eat my lunch. I like it spicy".

If I leave something in the fridge at work, I usually put my intials on it. Not so much cause I'm afraid someone else will eat it, but because I won't remember if it was mine.... is that my salad dressing???

Try bento style lunches. The Japanese have been packing lunches for many years without needed refrigeration. So you can just keep it at your desk with you. JustBento.com is a great place to start and has ideas and advice on how to pack great lunches that don't need refrigeration or reheating.

The theif would have to prove who tainted the food first :)

On the passive aggressive notes site there is story about someone who got tired of coworkers helping themselves to free soda from his 2-liter bottle.

He wrote on the bottle "I spit in this".

One of his coworkers wrote "So did I".