How Do You Protect Your Food from Being Stolen at work?
Last edited 18/11/2019 - 11:11
Someone stole my birthday cake and replaced it with a reduced for quick sale mudcake from woolies :(
Context: I've started a tradition where I bring a half 'n half cake to work to celebrate my birthday. This cake is usually made up of my wife's birthday cake and mine as we often have a joint birthday celebration. This year, it was an oreo cookies 'n cream cheesecake and a berry mousse genoise cake, which were imagined , designed and created by my kids, under the supervision of a family friend who is an executive pastry chef. So home-baked, one-of-a-kind, made-with-love-but-looks-completely-amazing cakes.
Left it in the fridge early in the morning. Came back at 2 p.m and the cake was gone.In it's place was a $2.50, stale mudcake from woolies with a note with my name written on it.
How do I prevent this from happening again?
Cheers,
JJB
Edit : The cake thief contacted me today with a heartfelt apology and offered to shout me lunch and/or drinks. All good :)
Comments
+37 votesBake a cake with lot of laxative. Put it in the fridge, enjoy the run to the toilets.
@Sensiekatie: oh, so you're the reason why toilet paper in public buildings are dispensed out of locked containers =)
but what if no-one takes the bait and you have to eat it afterwards because it's a shame to waste a cake?
+9 votesSomeone at work did this. Their jam kept getting stolen so they mixed laxatives all through it. The culprit took the bait and had some and never came back for more.
- +2 votes
i did that in highschool its not as amusing as in the movies, I would accept the cake thief apologies only to get a confession and then make a formal complaint and name and shame him.
I hardly get breaks and when a food thief strikes i think i'm hangry enough to murder them
- +16 votes
If by you 'rude' you mean 'dirty scumbag thieves' then yes, it appears some people are like that.
And the funny thing is a lot of times its actually the people you dont suspect like higher paid / up the food chain people in the work place. Perhaps with the mindset that nothing will happen to me or i deserve it or i am above the general status quo or its just a somewhat common personality trait. I have seen this time and time again at my workplace.
I bring a cake so that my colleagues don't have to contribute to buy me one.
+58 votesNo one at my work knows when my birthday is. Just how I like it. I'm at work to earn coin, not celebrate birthdays.
+13 votesWe had a coworker like this. We all made it our absolute priority to investigate and discover their birthday then put streamers and balloons all over their desk on that day.
Their frustration over our thoughtful celebratory nature was quite enjoyable.
@zeggie: We have a girl who asks for people star signs and then made a chart of who is compatible with who, r'ship and work wise…
- +4 votes
Omg yes. 100%.
It feels like it’s a celebration for one thing or another every second day.
I reckon the company should do monthly or quarterly celebrations.
My company allows flexible working, I barely go into the office anymore. Don’t need to deal with office politics and peoples shitty habits like the guy opposite my desk who clears his throat loudly every 5-10 seconds, 8 hours a day. Suggest you try doing the same if you can, it has made me enjoy my work again.
- +1 vote
Agree, I could of written this comment. Except now I've moved teams and have to come in more often :(
+30 votesYou do realise that you can't have your cake and eat it too?
- +42 votes
Hmmm nice people don't steal.
It could just be one bad person, try speaking to colleagues to see if anything like this has happened to them.
+1 voteThis year, it was an oreo cookies 'n cream cheesecake and a berry mousse genoise cake, which were imagined , designed and created by my kids, under the supervision of a family friend who is an executive pastry chef. So home-baked, one-of-a-kind, made-with-love-but-looks-completely-amazing cakes.
Edit : The cake thief contacted me today with a heartfelt apology and offered to shout me lunch and/or drinks. All good :)
Sounds like a $200 custom cake to me, esp made by loved ones too… So better be a BIG SHOUT.
I'd be furious mad.
What was reason for taking?
-12 votesReally this isn’t a colleague issue, contact Woolies it’s their cake which isnt upto the quality you expect.
And you brought in the cake to share, and that’s what happened, it was eaten by others Enjoying the sharing.
How many people do you work with who have access to the fridge?
- +1 vote
I heard the free drinks you got was actually someone elses beer that they swapped over for with water
Unless this is an yearly incident, it could be a joke to piss you off
- +6 votes
Work somewhere else.
Or put up signs and cause a fuss about the practise.
Really though it shouldn't be happening in the first place.Edit: Hang on,
Context: I've started a tradition where I bring a half 'n half cake to work to celebrate my birthday.
Is the cake to celebrate with your coworkers, or just for yourself?
Also, if this literally only once a year then is it worth making a thread about??- +1 vote
Cake is to share with everyone. It's technically leftovers from my birthday party. I bring it so that my colleagues don't have to contribute to buy me one. Most people look forward to it.
- +6 votes
Maybe you waited to long to share the cake and your colleagues shared it among themselves, and in addition, they bought you a cake for your bd as well. :)
- +16 votes
So the HR manager? She did look bloated that day and has been extra nice to me since the 'incident'.
+2 votesSounds about right. HR like to think they are above the rest…
Maybe keep it in a cake box and super sticky tape it up or duct tape it. At least the struggle to open your cake box in future will deter the evil person stealing your cake.
- -2 votes
It was her she is being nice you will be asked about the next cake soon , all the fatties down voting my comment…I reckon bake 2 and put laxatives in one make em pay
- +11 votes
Install a replacement first camera.
Install a second camera to watch the first camera. If that fails - install more cameras.
- +8 votes
I would find the culprit and ensure everyone in the office knew the kind of crap they pulled
- +62 votes
My previous work had only hilo milk in the fridge.
So I bring my own Full Cream Milk 2L, and put it away from the communal milk.
Yet it gets consumed again and again.
So a female colleague suggested I label the bottle Breast Milk.
I did, and it got drank twice as fast as before.
- +1 vote
It’ll be gone before you even had the chance to buy it by “Asian syndicate”
It's not unheard of in a large enough company for there to be fecal or urine specimen containers left in the fridges. Sometimes for days.
@FAST and Curious: singing Just like a chocolate milkshake only crunchy!
@macfudd: LOL. I had "apple juice" in the fridge in college that was cleaning supplies.
- +9 votes
I once got involved (God only knows how) in a bunfight at our office over the milk that was supplied. People weren't happy with what was being supplied because they wanted all these alternative products, claiming it was "unfair" that others effectively got their milk "for free" while they had to pay for theirs.
I was effectively the financial controller for our department and when I proposed solving the issue of "fairness" by getting no milk for anyone so that everyone would have to pay for their own, they changed their tune pretty quickly.
Office fridges are just a nightmare. Between Karen's hissy fits over who pays for what, the sh!tstorm when someone steals Billy's food, or just the cesspit that forms when Brenda doesn't bother to clean out the fish curry she put in there three weeks ago, I don't know why offices have communal fridges.
- -1 vote
You do realise the opposite of what you did - buying staff like $4 worth of soy/almond or whatever milk would likely raise morale and the overall benefits and results would likely exceed that cost?
- +4 votes
Maybe, maybe not. Or just raise expectations on what will be supplied.
The point is, people should be there to work, not squabble about whether or not the milk supplied meets their requirements.
In a similar vein, at another workplace they had an "ask the CEO" page on their intranet. They kept all past questions and responses. One was someone demanding that the CEO take action over people coming in early and consuming all the milk with their cereal and there being none left my late-morning for their tea. They seriously wanted to make the milk for the exclusive use of tea/coffee drinkers and not for any other use. J*sus.
@Seraphin7: You do realise establishing or improving culture starts from the top and not the bottom, right?
@zeggie: Thanks for assuming I'm at the top of the pile … I'll let my boss's, boss's boss know. They may be able to get to someone who can let me start the cultural revolution required.
@Seraphin7: The "top" essentially have given you the power to solve the milk problem didn't they? The "top" have given you some element of control of finances. You still didn't solve the problem. So is placing you in charge of financials for your department, and failing to resolve the "milk issue", their failing or your failing?
Apparently it's important enough that multiple people have approached you and posted in an "ask the CEO" page.
Can't expect to change culture when you can't implement one small change, that multiple employees were requesting and would cost probably less than $10 a week ;)
- +2 votes
@Seraphin7: "Or just raise expectations on what will be supplied"
This.People are ungrateful jerks.
The more they can get the more they will ask for. Then the entitlement begins when things change and bread, fruit, cereal and other free food items change.- -2 votes
@zeggie: LMAO imagine being this stubborn over milk that someone goes on a neg spree.
- +1 vote
Agree with the fridge thing. One of the big ones is who is going to defrost and clean the fridge. You need a sodding roster for people to do the right thing.
@Seraphin7: You get fridge cleaning/defrosting added to the contract with the cleaning company. Problem solved.
Same with emptying out dishwashers etc. Leaving it to (presumably) highly skilled staff that should be using their time and energy on better things just doesn't make sense.
They don't even put the White icing thing on top anymore. Coles MUD better
- +6 votes
Compared to other soil based cakes.
Actually, I rather enjoy them.
+2 votesTake it up with HR and get everyone sacked…
Seriously though, you bought it in to work for them to enjoy, and they enjoyed it. Sounds more like a practical joke played on you.
Don’t bring your precious cake to work if it means that much to you, that way, you can have your cake and eat it too…
- +7 votes
The issue is "they" did not enjoy it. Only 1 person did and the rest felt guilty by association and shouted me drinks. The whole point of bringing a cake for my birthday is so that my colleagues don't have to be guilt-tripped into contributing to buy me one, like we are for all the other birthdays.
So you brought in the left overs of your party cake, it got stolen, and everyone shouted you drinks. I'll try that on my birthday, seems a cheap way of getting drunk !
- +1 vote
So you brought in the left overs of your party cake, it got stolen, and everyone shouted you drinks.
And an offer of free lunch and drinks from the person who ate the cake in a moment of weakness.
Yep, been a pretty good birthday :)
- +1 vote
@Jar Jar binks: BTW, Happy Birthday for when it was. People will expect cake for the Ozbargain meet up.
OzBargain
ChoiceCheapies
CheapCheapLah
never leave cake unattended, anywhere. period.