Stealing food from the office fridge is one of the most frustrating things a coworker can do. It’s rude, inconsiderate, and feels like a personal betrayal.
It also happens more often than you’d think—about 1 in 6 people admit to sneaking a bite from someone else’s lunch. Sure, you could report it to HR, but some employees prefer to take matters into their own hands. Like the ones on Reddit, who shared clever and wickedly hilarious ways they got back at their food-thieving coworkers. Scroll down to see their revenge stories, and don’t forget to upvote your favorites!
#1
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 people's lunches (more than once from several people)
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.”
Image credits: AJDrake405
#2
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 drawer so that she knew that "someone" was watching her.
Image credits: Spin_Me
#3
More than 25 years ago, I worked at a factory and about a few weeks prior, I started to notice a snack missing from my lunch. Some days it was just my potato chips, but it had started to become the cookie every day. Just one, as my wife would normally pack me two. I asked around and of course nobody knew anything.
The only out of the ordinary thing going on at the place was a very rotund and arrogant young man that had started about a month earlier, about the same time that I noticed bits of my lunch had gone missing. He had also said that it wasn’t him.
So I came up with a devilish idea. I made a big batch of chocolate chips cookies and brought them in for everyone to enjoy, except for two larger cookies that had an entire box of chocolate exlax baked face down into into them, which remained in my lunchbox.
It was the Wednesday before thanksgiving and my shift started at 11pm that night. I passed out the regular cookies to everyone at work to set the trap. 1am, nothing. Both cookies were still in my lunchbox. Oh well, I keep working.
3am rolls around and one of the cookies is missing. I joyfully go around telling everyone what I had done and to keep an eye on the restroom for the perpetrator. He should be easy to spot since he will likely be sprinting.
4am, I return to my workstation to realize the 2nd cookie was now missing. Uh, yeah I didn’t expect that they would take both cookies. It was usually just one. Whoever the suspect is now had enough exlax to propel the to the stratosphere.
5am, nothing yet but everyone’s eyes are on the restroom.
6:15am, this streak of safety gear wearing a hard hat comes bolting from the corner of the plant, screaming in agony and busts through the restroom door. It was indeed the young rotund probationary employee.
Everyone had a good laugh and a couple of coworkers decided to stand outside of the stall door and harass this poor young man. “I’ll bet you’ll never steal anyone’s lunch again kiddo”. “Now you’ll be spending Thanksgiving on the can. Your mama can slide your dinner under the door for you”.
The kid still denied it was him. Nobody believes it though, but my lunch was never messed with again.
Image credits: Ryno5150
#4
I like spicy food, really spicy food, like I regularly put scorpion pepper on a lot of my dishes.
I started making breakfast sandwiches and this guy at work kept eating them. I asked him to stop, told him those were not communal (because we do share coffee/creamer and stuff like that), but told him I’d be happy to prep him some since that’s something I do. Next day he comes in and heats one up and I said nothing. That night I made 2 burritos and put 1/2 of a scorpion pepper in each one, put my homemade habenaro pepper salsa on them, and used a Carolina reaper pepper hotsauce as well.
After 30 minutes in the bathroom he never ate my food again. Little B***h.
Image credits: gimpers420
#5
Interesting the amount of payback, but little questioning as to why someone may be stealing food. We had that happen at a company I worked for about 8 years ago. Rather than accusing or getting angry, we sent a company wide email and told the person that if they were dealing with food insecurity there was help. Invited them to reach out for help and provided additional resources. Unsure who it was or if they got the help they needed, but no food was stolen after.
#6
I made a blindingly hot curry.
The funny part is that he had me dragged into the facility manager's office for 'booby trapping' my lunch.
I ate a forkful like it was no big deal and then pointed out to the manager that, if he was okay with stealing from his coworkers, then he'd definitely be okay with stealing from the company.
They started doing random bag checks after that and that guy always got his back checked when it happened.
Image credits: anon
#7
I still remember a story told by one of my Aunts when I was a kid. Her lunch kept disappearing from the refrigerator at work. She made a nice looking sandwich with good bread, lettuce, tomato etc, and a good layer of canned dog food in the middle of all that. Found the thief when they started barfing mid-sandwich. You don't mess with Aunt Shirley, or her lunch.
Image credits: adoptagreyhound
#8
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.
Image credits: Ok-Cheetah-9125
#9
I had a coworker steal a mango smoothie from the fridge. Long story short, I knew without a doubt that she was the one who stole it, yet she denied it regardless. It was probably a $5 smoothie, and I couldn’t have actually cared less about the smoothie itself, but was annoyed by the blatant lying about it. After she left work at the end of the day. I stole the M, A, N, G, and O keys off of her keyboard. I placed them in the fridge where my mango smoothie previously resided, strategically to spell out MANGO upon opening the fridge. I don’t think she found it particularly funny the next day when she arrived to the office with an incomplete keyboard, but to me, it was the perfect, humerous revenge.
#10
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.
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.
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.
Image credits: Scared_Ad2563
#11
The one who stole my food would loudly tell everyone about their peanut allergy any time sharing food was involved. She stole my lunch so many times shamelessly, so one day I put some peanut butter cookies in my lunch. She stopped stealing my lunch after that.
Image credits: anon
#12
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.
Image credits: MattyFromTheUK
#13
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 was f*****g priceless. I never left my food in there again but I bet he never stole anything from there again, either.
Edit: I keep snacks and food items in my office specifically for students. They all know they can get food from me if they need it, theh just have to come by. Zero questions asked. Idc about the food, it’s the theft that pisses me off.
Image credits: BagelwithQueefcheese
#14
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.
Image credits: Jumpy-Author-4985
#15
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.
#16
At my former job, we had a fridge bandit. This person would pick the tidbits out of your food. Example the shrimp out of your Chinese. However their biggest trait was taking sandwiches out of lunch boxes. After dealing with multiple employee complaints, and being a telecom, communications company I asked for cameras in the break room. My request was denied. So, vigilante action came into play. I spoke with three of the food victims and instructed them to meet me in my office the next day fifteen mins before their shift. When they showed up I had a loaf of bread and two cans of wet cat food. We made some new sandwiches to replace the ones in their lunch boxes. I had them remove the real sandwiches to store in my office refrigerator.
The culprit took the bait, and one of the sandwiches was stolen. We never saw who, but after that day, there wasn’t another theft before I moved on to another company and promotion. Petty and gross, but I love thinking about the big first bite they took and the reaction that followed. Lesson learned !
Image credits: blindambition00
#17
Back in the day, someone kept stealing my Diet Cokes out of the office fridge. So I took a Mentos and put a needle and thread thru it, and carefully strung up the Mentos in the cap of a soda bottle. Sure enough it got stolen and when the thief opened it, the Mento fell in the Diet Coke and the whole thing exploded all over him, his desk, keyboard, monitor etc. There was a big commotion around his cubicle and I went over to see what was going on, knowing full well what had happened.
I went back to his desk about an hour later and I whispered to him "if you ever steal my soda again, I'll break your f*****g legs and then I'll get you fired."
Problem solved
Image credits: iptvrocketbox
#18
Revenge isn't gonna keep my food safe. I bought a stainless steel box that took up a bunch of fridge space and kept my things under lock and key. HR tried calling me on it once but since I wasn't about to start an escalating prank war of capsaicin, chemical bittering agents, or food poisoning they elected not to argue with "Someone was stealing from me. Now they can't".
#19
I put a hidden camera in the fridge… caught him redhanded on camera diggin through everyones lunches. Then i sent a mass email to everyone in the office with the title found the office rat! He quit a few days later because everyone hated him and treated him bad after… karmas a b***h louie
#20
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.
Image credits: GothPenguin
#21
Not me but my StepDad.
He used to LOVE to make pickled eggs and bring them into the mill to share with his friends. He would have them in a huge jar, and he would make around 100 eggs at a time. They were stored in a communal fridge. He started to see massive amounts disappearing, so he started to put notes on the jar like, "Please ask before you take an egg." Still, tones of eggs were disappearing. He heard who was doing it, and the culprit was taking them home.
So, he pi*sed in the jar. Gross, but the eggs were still being taken by this one dude. So, he waited until they were all gone, stood up in the lunchroom, and told the crew what he had done. Tones of laughs while the guy ran to the bathroom to puke.
Gross as hell, but no one touched his eggs ever again.
#22
This happened to a friend of mine. She would leave her sandwich in the communal fridge. Every day it got taken.
Finally she got a plastic bag printed with mold on it.
Nobody touched that sandwich again.
Image credits: moheagirl
#23
Not revenge, per se, but defense…
I kept an entire Costco box full of Häagen Dazs ice cream bars in the freezer for over a month, untouched, in a covered 9X13 casserole pan labeled “Enchiladas” ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Nobody likes old soggy enchiladas.
#24
I kept a cup with candy in my office for myself and others, but someone was emptying the whole thing when I was at lunch. So I bought some hot Warheads and filled my cup with them, and warned my regular visitors about it. Came back from lunch, empty cup. About an hour later, there is an incoherent yell of pain and shock, and the freaking PARTNER OF THE LAW FIRM storms into my office and demands to know what kind of candy they were and complaining that they were horrible. Never mind she made (at least) 5x my salary and stealing all my candy, it was me who was in the wrong. But...she never took my candy again.
#25
Mixed a ton of red food coloring into a small amount of ketchup and spread on sandwich. Caught red toothed. May not work with people who brush their teeth.
#26
Made a tomato based sauce with lots of fresh basil and mixed a tablespoon of Da Bomb hotsauce to it. The dude suffered bad.
Image credits: wabudo
#27
I left 2 pieces of pizza in the fridge. I removed the cheese layer carefully and dumped a ton of salt on top of the sauce and put the cheese back on top.
Image credits: xs-murdoc
#28
I was having this type of issue and I like spicey food. So I made a roast beef sandwich with lettuce, tomato etc and I slathered on horse radish sauce. Just the way I like it.
The whole office actually heard the lunch thief scream after eating some of my lunch.
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.
#29
A classic. Ghost pepper dust in the burger. This was about 9 years ago, I was working at Walmart and pregnant. I would often get Jr. Chicken or big mac before my shift, and leave it in the fridge for lunch. I started to notice it going missing, so I started leaving a note on it. It still happened. Management did nothing, wouldn't even check the cameras. Ordered some dried ground ghost peppers online, and put a butt ton of it under the patty on the jr chicken. Heard from a few co-workers some girl we worked with who everyone disliked, ran out of the lunch room bawling and was seen in the bathroom with her mouth under the faucet.
#30
Laced my lunch with ghost pepper—watched the thief turn redder than our company’s budget report!
Image credits: SweetSarah3
