# People stealing my lunch, is it ok to make a cat food sandwich? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 7, 2009, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-stealing-my-lunch-is-it-ok-to-make-a-cat-food-sandwich/509169 "2009-09-07T16:15:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2009, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-stealing-my-lunch-is-it-ok-to-make-a-cat-food-sandwich/509169/141 "2009-09-08T21:02:16Z")
Well, the suspense is really building up. ---
**Author:** ![Mahna\_Mahna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e47c2d/32.png) [@Mahna\_Mahna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahna_Mahna)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2009, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-stealing-my-lunch-is-it-ok-to-make-a-cat-food-sandwich/509169/142 "2009-09-08T21:04:36Z")
I’ve only had my lunch taken once in the seven years I’ve worked here. The funniest part is that of all the lunches to steal, what got taken was a half-eaten pork chop with mashed potatoes and gravy left over from the day before (I’d intentionally packed a double portion the day before so that I could spread it across two days). I had a pretty nasty case of Teh Sick that week, so I’m pretty sure the thief got what was coming to them just from eating my germ-riddled leftovers. Not that I quizzed anyone who came down with the sniffles… I figure anyone desperate enough to eat a pork chop with visible bite marks is pretty pathetic, and not worth the effort to hunt down just over a one-off. Can’t wait to see what happened to DigitalC’s Mysterious Sandwich Bandit. 🙂 How sad is it that this is the most exciting thing I’ve run into today? ---
**Author:** ![Fell\_through\_the\_Ice](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a9adbd/32.png) [@Fell\_through\_the\_Ice](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fell_through_the_Ice)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2009, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-stealing-my-lunch-is-it-ok-to-make-a-cat-food-sandwich/509169/143 "2009-09-08T21:09:49Z")
> [@Muffin](#): > > That suggests that they fed you. Ok look, I am not going to be baited into defending myself here. I’ve already said repeatedly that I was wrong and that I am ashamed of what I did. I stole people’s lunches when I was a dumb teenager who had no lunch of his own when lunchtime came around. I vaguely recall some rule at the group home about not taking any food out of the dining area, so it’s possible that I was not able/allowed to make a lunch to go. But it doesn’t really matter. This thread is about how to stop people from stealing other people’s lunch, not so much _why_ they are stealing it. I stole food because I was hungry, and I’m willing to share my ideas on what would have deterred me from stealing food in that situation. For people who steal food for other reasons, I have no idea. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2009, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-stealing-my-lunch-is-it-ok-to-make-a-cat-food-sandwich/509169/144 "2009-09-08T21:18:47Z")
> [@muffin](#): > > or you have a fierce rep that no cowardly sandwich thief is willing to mess with. > > [arms akimbo][chest thrust out][looking up into the distance][trumpet fanfare]ivylass: Protector of sandwiches everywhere![/arms akimbo][/chest thrust out][/looking up into the distance][/trumpet fanfare] **truth, mayonnaise, and the american way!** ---
**Author:** ![Contrapuntal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e274bd/32.png) [@Contrapuntal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Contrapuntal)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2009, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-stealing-my-lunch-is-it-ok-to-make-a-cat-food-sandwich/509169/145 "2009-09-08T21:19:55Z")
> [@Fell\_through\_the\_Ice](#): > > I stole food because I was hungry And if you didn’t like, it you threw it away. How fucking hungry could you have been? ---
**Author:** ![Tristan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tristan/32/18058_2.png) [@Tristan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tristan)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2009, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-stealing-my-lunch-is-it-ok-to-make-a-cat-food-sandwich/509169/146 "2009-09-08T21:22:37Z")
> [@Contrapuntal](#): > > And if you didn’t like, it you threw it away. How fucking hungry could you have been? Would you like me to knock him down, so you can kick him too? He’s apologized, repented, and is offering to help others avoid having it done. Relax, back off. The actions of a stupid teenager should not haunt a grown man if they are of this calibre. _keeps an eye out for the “Can a cat food sammich make me sick?” thread, which would be just awesome_ ---
**Author:** ![dangermom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e274bd/32.png) [@dangermom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dangermom)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2009, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-stealing-my-lunch-is-it-ok-to-make-a-cat-food-sandwich/509169/147 "2009-09-08T21:25:49Z")
Yeah, no need for a pile-on here. I can totally see a young, hungry teenager doing that because he couldn’t really see any other option. Lay off already, enough. ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2009, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-stealing-my-lunch-is-it-ok-to-make-a-cat-food-sandwich/509169/148 "2009-09-08T21:25:59Z")
> [@Fell\_through\_the\_Ice](#): > > I stole food because I was hungry, and I’m willing to share my ideas on what would have deterred me from stealing food in that situation. For people who steal food for other reasons, I have no idea. I expect that most people who steal food do so because they were hungry. Why then are they hungry? Why do they steal food rather than go hungry for a short while? ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2009, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-stealing-my-lunch-is-it-ok-to-make-a-cat-food-sandwich/509169/149 "2009-09-08T21:28:57Z")
> [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](#): > > No one’s ever stolen my lunch, but in 7th grade bio class someone stole my dead frog. Well, maybe they thought that _was_ your lunch 😉 Waiting here to hear about the sammich bandit’s latest. DigitalC, does it seem like your lunch is particularly targeted? is your lunch swiped pretty consistently? I’ve only once or twice had food stolen from the office fridge, and that not for many years - I’d gotten some ice-cream bars that I kept in the freezer, and they tended to evaporate. It’s always puzzled me that in that environment, someone would steal food (nobody in our office was even remotely a minimum-wage worker). Well, it’s puzzled me that anyone would ever, but **FttI** gives one good example of why someone would do so. We once worked someplace where the nightly janitorial staff would routinely go through our desk drawers and steal any loose change (not the pennies though). And they’d take candy if we had any lying around, though they were picky. Someone once left a note saying “it’s wrong to steal” and her desk got vandalized as a result. ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2009, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-stealing-my-lunch-is-it-ok-to-make-a-cat-food-sandwich/509169/150 "2009-09-08T21:29:26Z")
And then there was my neighbour who routinely complained that someone was stealing steaks from his refridgerator in the middle ofthe night. I thought he was a bit of a nut, until one night my cat laid a steak on my chest while I was sleeping. Yes, I apologized and paid him for the purrrloined stakes. ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2009, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-stealing-my-lunch-is-it-ok-to-make-a-cat-food-sandwich/509169/151 "2009-09-08T21:30:21Z")
> [@Contrapuntal](#): > > And if you didn’t like, it you threw it away. Preferable, I’d guess, to returning it to the fridge with a bite missing. ---
**Author:** ![Contrapuntal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e274bd/32.png) [@Contrapuntal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Contrapuntal)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2009, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-stealing-my-lunch-is-it-ok-to-make-a-cat-food-sandwich/509169/152 "2009-09-08T21:33:12Z")
> [@dangermom](#): > > Yeah, no need for a pile-on here. I can totally see a young, hungry teenager doing that because he couldn’t really see any other option. Lay off already, enough. No other option than _throwing food away_ when he was _so hungry he was forced to steal it_, just because he _didn’t like it_? Really? No other option? Add that to the fact that nearly every question he is asked he answers “I really don’t know” and I’m calling BS on the whole story. [QUOTE=Tristan] Would you like me to knock him down, so you can kick him too? He’s apologized, repented, and is offering to help others avoid having it done. Relax, back off. [/QUOTE] He threw away perfectly good food. Does that sound like someone who is so hungry he is forced to steal? Does it really make sense that a group home would send kids out to work and not provide them a lunch, or the means to get one? How about you back off, and think about the story a bit more closely? ---
**Author:** ![Contrapuntal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e274bd/32.png) [@Contrapuntal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Contrapuntal)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2009, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-stealing-my-lunch-is-it-ok-to-make-a-cat-food-sandwich/509169/153 "2009-09-08T21:34:36Z")
[QUOTE=Vinyl Turnip] Preferable, I’d guess, to returning it to the fridge with a bite missing. [/QUOTE] True enough, I suppose, if completely irrelevant. ---
**Author:** ![Tristan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tristan/32/18058_2.png) [@Tristan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tristan)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2009, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-stealing-my-lunch-is-it-ok-to-make-a-cat-food-sandwich/509169/154 "2009-09-08T21:40:48Z")
> [@Contrapuntal](#): > > Does it really make sense that a group home would send kids out to work and not provide them a lunch, or the means to get one? How about you back off, and think about the story a bit more closely? Have you ever been in a group home? I haven’t. I had a few friends that had been through the system, and it wouldn’t surprise me in the least, especially for a ward who had a job, to be told they were aquiring their own lunch. Why are you so fired up to make someone feel WORSE (he already feels bad) about something he did as a stupid teenager? He has apologized, and expressed regret. What would you like him to do? Mail you a sammich? Track down people from X years ago and beg their forgiveness? ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2009, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-stealing-my-lunch-is-it-ok-to-make-a-cat-food-sandwich/509169/155 "2009-09-08T21:40:51Z")
> [@Muffin](#): > > [arms akimbo][chest thrust out][looking up into the distance][trumpet fanfare]Ivylass: protector of sandwiches everywhere![/arms akimbo][/chest thrust out][/looking up into the distance][/trumpet fanfare] I hate that I’m on the SDMB, and even here everyone is willing to let these wrongly nested tags go unmentioned, except for me. ---
**Author:** ![SmellMyWort](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea5d25/32.png) [@SmellMyWort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmellMyWort)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2009, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-stealing-my-lunch-is-it-ok-to-make-a-cat-food-sandwich/509169/156 "2009-09-08T21:44:20Z")
I could see throwing out a sandwich that looks gross, but keeping other good things in the lunch like chips, pudding cup, string cheese, soda, etc. No where does FTTI say he was severely starving, like, trapped in a car wreck having to survive on tic-tacs and chapstick for 3 days starving. Just hungry enough, and yeah, probably not caring enough, to steal a lunch. ---
**Author:** ![lobotomyboy63](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobotomyboy63/32/2900_2.png) [@lobotomyboy63](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lobotomyboy63)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2009, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-stealing-my-lunch-is-it-ok-to-make-a-cat-food-sandwich/509169/157 "2009-09-08T21:44:34Z")
I wonder if DigitalC is currently being strangled by someone whose breath smells of 9 Lives. This sure is exciting, though! ---
**Author:** ![Heart\_of\_Dorkness](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/4bbf92/32.png) [@Heart\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heart_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2009, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-stealing-my-lunch-is-it-ok-to-make-a-cat-food-sandwich/509169/158 "2009-09-08T21:46:33Z")
> [@bup](#): > > I hate that I’m on the SDMB, and even here everyone is willing to let these wrongly nested tags go unmentioned, except for me. You’re not alone - I saw that just before I had to take a call, and I came back specifically to mention it. ---
**Author:** ![SmellMyWort](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea5d25/32.png) [@SmellMyWort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmellMyWort)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2009, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-stealing-my-lunch-is-it-ok-to-make-a-cat-food-sandwich/509169/159 "2009-09-08T21:47:10Z")
Or having a nice long chat with HR. If the perp is exposed, **DigitalC** and any other worker who had lunch stolen should meow when passing the jerk in the hallway. ---
**Author:** ![Contrapuntal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e274bd/32.png) [@Contrapuntal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Contrapuntal)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2009, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-stealing-my-lunch-is-it-ok-to-make-a-cat-food-sandwich/509169/160 "2009-09-08T21:49:12Z")
> [@Tristan](#): > > Have you ever been in a group home? I haven’t. I had a few friends that had been through the system, and it wouldn’t surprise me in the least, especially for a ward who had a job, to be told they were aquiring their own lunch. My brother has run several. The kids do not go hungry. If he told the counselors that he had no money, he would be given advice on how to budget so as not to starve, or given food to take to work. > [@](#): > > Why are you so fired up to make someone feel WORSE (he already feels bad) about something he did as a stupid teenager? Why are you so fired up to attribute motivations to me when you in fact know piss-all about it? > [@](#): > > He has apologized, and expressed regret. What would you like him to do? Mail you a sammich? Track down people from X years ago and beg their forgiveness? I want him to explain why a starving individual throws away perfectly good food. I couldn’t give a rat’s ass whether he apologizes or not. His apologies in this thread are meaningless unless he stole a lunch from someone here. As I said, to me the story doesn’t pass the sniff test. Why can’t you understand that? it’s a pretty simple concept. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-stealing-my-lunch-is-it-ok-to-make-a-cat-food-sandwich/509169.md?page=7) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-stealing-my-lunch-is-it-ok-to-make-a-cat-food-sandwich/509169.md?page=9)