Cite?
Do you really think you can smirk at the judge and say “Gosh, your honor, I was just putting some stuff in my own food” and stroll out of the court?
Here’s an interesting law from N. Carolina. We really need a lawyer’s input in this thread.
If it’s non-lethal (Ex-Lax or pepper sauce, not literaly “poison”), I doubt that law enforcement is going to give a fuck. If a guy wants to go the cops and complain that he got Ex-laxed by a stolen sandwich, and the cops decide they want to investigate, then good luck to them proving anything. I don’t even know how they’d prove who put the bag there (or prove that the item wasn’t spiked, without your knowledge, after you put it there). If it’s rat poison or something, that would probably be different, but I think people are really exaggerating the real chances of prosecution for put a laxative in your own ice cream.
I don’t know if the SDMB linked thread contains my old suggestion, so I’m going to list it here.
I read about a woman who was tired of having her sandwiches stolen out of the fridge at work. So she pulled a clump of hair out of her hairbrush and made an appetizing-looking sandwich with the big hairball hidden in the middle of it, and put the sandwich in the fridge. It was promptly stolen and the thief discovered because she screamed when she bit into the 'wich and gagged on the clump. Fired for theft, too.
Hair isn’t poison, nor is dog or cat food. Icky, but not poisonous.
Cite that I’m allowed to put a laxative in my own food? Are you high?
Yep.
None of this applies because we aren’t talking about food that is distributed, sold or given away to others.
That’s odd. Bold text is usually fairly noticeable, but you seem to have missed it entirely.
The bolded part is also not in play. It was not placed in a position of general accessibility. It was in a private container in a refrigerator intended to store only private items.
Oh right, the fridge isn’t accessible to humans. Good point.
Good luck convincing a judge that you were constipated, but instead of simply taking a couple of pills, you took the trouble to dissolve them, lace your own food with it, and store it in a public area – for your own medicinal benefit. Especially if you’ve had a history of having your unlaced food stolen from that very same area.
Do you really think anyone’s going to believe that he didn’t have intent to distribute it to others?
That’s not what “accessible” means in that phrasing. It doesn’t mean “easy to steal.”
They have the burden of proof, not me.
It would never go to a judge anyway. No prosecuter is going to waste time on this garbage. There isn’t even a clear charge.
Would you extend this line of reasoning from ex-lax to strychnine? Why or why not?
If I were on the jury, I’d say that the plaintiff made his case quite well, assuming the stuff I posted previously.
As far as it never getting before a judge in the first place, I don’t know about you, but I generally don’t make my decisions about what I’ll do based on whether my actions will land me before a judge. If the question even comes up, it’s probably a bad idea.
I agree with this 100%. I think it’s indicative of your litigation-happy society that even a slight mention of putting laxative or hot sauce into YOUR OWN FOOD can produce some many cries of “But you’ll be SUED!” Seriously? 20 year-olds in college are prone to pranking each other and people are wringing their hands crying about how much the trouble the OP will be in?
As to the OP, my suggestion would be to always label your food. Someone mentioned before that since it’s a communal fridge, maybe people assumed that it meant to be shared if it’s not labeled.
If food-theft still occurs to your labeled items, then put some hot sauce in. I don’t recommend laxatives, just because it takes a while to see the effect. The blue food dye in the brownies is a good idea too because you can always say “I was going to bring it to a theme party later.”
The idea is to catch the thief and stop him/her, not to exact revenge.
I think most posters were concerned about criminal liability, not being sued.
I’ve already answered this.
Oh man this thread took a turn for the vicious.
pops some popcorn stolen out of my workmate’s deskdrawer
There isn’t really a question. It would never be prosecuted. There is no law against putting laxatives in your own food. There would be nothing to charge you with.
There’s no law against putting rat poison in your own food, either.
There is no possibility of criminal liability for putting Ex-lax in your own ice cream. Everybody can relax.