Sure, and I would never deliberately put something in food myself, nor advocate it.
As fas as suing someone…given the fucked-up reasoning of some idiots, I can see someone advocating suing me over the large amounts of habanero sauce I put into my own food, for my own actual consumption, should someone steal it, eat it, and burn their poor wittle mouth or have an allergic reaction.
I’m not certain about that. The contrast stuff I had to drink before my CT scan might have been worse. I’m not gonna do a taste test to prove the theory, that’s for sure.
Another thing that may need to be addressed that I think is being overlooked, is the question of whether it would be legal or allowed for you to set up any sort of video surveillance. I’m guessing your not the boss.
But why should they have to change what they choose to eat because someone else is doing something illegal??
And some of the food was stolen off people’s desks, so the “cleaning out the refrigerator” reason doesn’t fly.
What about putting in some spices or something that tastes friggin’ disgusting?
Or for the laxatives-you can claim they were for YOU in the first place.
Listen, just because someone is a douchbag to you, doesn’t make it right to be a douchebag back.
You are not seriously comparing drugging SOMEONE ELSE’S FOOD, and physically HARASSING someone to putting something gross IN MY OWN FOOD, are you?
:rolleyes:
The important issue is not who owns the food in question, but what your intentions were in adulterating the food.
If you truly intended to eat it yourself, clearly there is not the requisite intent required for any criminal act.
However, if the intent was that someone else was to eat it, and be either “harmed” or “aggreived or annoyed” thereby, then you would be guilty of a crime, assuming someone eats it, that whatever you put into it was in fact “noxious”, and of course assuming a prosecutor can prove beyond reasonable doubt that this was your intent.
That person may, in turn, be guilty of stealing the food from you. But the fact that they are a thief doesn’t excuse deliberately poisioning them.
I would think they would ask you to prove a medical need for the laxatives, Little Plastic Ninja would be in the clear once it was proven they needed to take the laxatives pre-operation. Anyone else, might very well find themselves convicted if they didn’t have such well-backed reason to have laxatives in their food.
Adding: That’d be a hell of a way to bust a thief though. “I have to go get more laxative from the hospital so I can take it on time, someone stole my laxative spiked orange juice, which I needed to consume pre-operation.” All the boss/manager would have to do, is find the person camping the toilet.
Maybe so. But I still say putting some obnoxious spice or something would be your best bet.
Okay, so I’ve got the Toronto Police Department on the phone (I’m on hold, talking to a representative from 51 Division). I specifically asked about booby traps and whether or not it would be illegal to put ExLax in my own ice cream…
Okay, I spoke with Detective Constable Holly, 51 Division, (I can Private Message you the phone number if you wish to talk to him yourself)…
Yes, if you doctor your own food with a substance that will sicken someone when you know full well that someone will consume it (whether or not they have your permission to do so), then the charge will be “administering a noxious substance”. It is a Federal crime. Even though they are stealing and committing a criminal act themselves, you are not allowed to deliberately harm them unless it is self-defense and you are in immediate danger. If you put shit in your food with the expectation that someone will steal it, you can be charged.
YMMV depending on your juristiction.
And Guin I never said that poisoning your own food is comparable to harassing someone, or assaulting someone. All I said was that I was aware that some laws do exist about doctoring food, and that the laws have been applied to pranks, and that “administering a noxious substance” would probably be applicable. I was right, that is the crime with which you’d be charged.
So it’s less hassle just to camp out in the office and thrash the miscreant with a tire iron. Gotcha.
PC Holly said that it also depends on whether or not the noxious substance is disguised so that a reasonable person would assume it’s safe. For example, if you decided to catch an aspirin thief by taking a bottle of aspirin, dumping the aspirin out and replacing it with Fart Pills, so that any reasonable person who picked up the bottle and read the label and assumed it was full of aspirin…
We had a guy at work who was stealing petty little items from the fridge. Everyone knew it was him - he was in a blue collar job, but was a millionaire many times over, he had a massive investment portfolio, and was mad with thrift. He had a McDonald’s cup that entitled him to free coffee - out of character for them, McDonald’s had forgotten to put an expiry on the offer, and he seized on this, and was going in there years later with an old, cracked, faded cup demanding free coffee. He’d go into town at 5pm on Saturday to get the free bread given away by a shop. He used soup kitchens. He rarely showered. A total nutjob. Anyway, he was given to stealing milk. He’d hastily drink it down out of the carton right there on the spot, and throw the carton in the bin…
…until one day we emptied a full jar of paprika into it and gave it a shake. And waited.
He came down the stairs gagging, we laughed our tits off, and he never did it again.
Illegal? Immoral? Who gives a rat’s? It was fun. Part deterrent, BIG part revenge. And why not? Revenge is fun.
But if they were plainly labeled “Fart Pills,” and the thief just doesn’t happen to speak or read English…
Start labeling you lunch “Lab Supplies - Dangerous.”
That would be an “accident”. There was no attempt to disguise the Fart Pills or mislead the poor stinky bastard. Someone eating ExLax out of its package because they couldn’t read the label would be a stupid accident and the fault would lie with the muncher. Eating something that you can’t identify is really unwise, and a reasonable person should hesitate if they can’t read and tell the difference between “Gatorade” and “Urine Sample”.
But putting ExLax in ice cream, which is very unusual and any reasonable person would certainly not expect it to be, or putting an ExLax tablet in the wrapper of a Hershey Bar would be naughty. There is deliberate subterfuge.
If you love habanero chili suace in great gobs on all your food and someone else burns their mouth sampling your food without permission, there was no attempt to harm the other person. You just have no taste buds. But if you mess with your own food so even YOU won’t eat it, like by adding ground up Fart Pills, that no reasonable person would add to their food, it can get you in shit because it implies intent.
Interestingly, PC Holly also said in passing that it’s also illegal to poison your neighbor’s dog by leaving tainted meatballs in your own backyard or something. The dog may be trespassing, but you can’t set out poison knowing ahead of time that the dog will come and eat it. If the dog attacks you ou can shoot it, but you can’t set up a dog killing death ray ahead of time.
[slight hijack]
I work really long hours which means that by the time I get close to home my closest supermarket is closed. If I want to buy something for dinner I quite often run across to the supermarket, buy my ingredients and store it in the work fridge to take home. If you do it sensitively (ie. don’t take up all the room in the fridge), I think it’s fine.
If I couldn’t do that, it would mean that I would leave work (7.30pm), get home via bus (8.30 pm), drive to my grocery store (9 pm) drive home (9.30 pm), cook (10pm), eat (10.01pm).
OR I can take my small bag of groceries home with me after storing them in a polite way in the work fridge, and enjoy a nice glass of wine while cooking dinner, getting to eat around 9pm.
[sl]
Of course you could just put up a big sign that says something to the effect of “Due to recent thefts from this office, several food items have been tainted with _____”
But if they don’t read english, it won’t do any good. And now that I think about it, if the culprit does wind up sick, it would be REALLY easy for you to get screwed.
PS, I mean putting up a sign, but NOT actually tainting the food.
The easiest way would be to get something like this (http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=7842052&st=linksys+camera&type=product&id=1152228542200)
You can set it to record when it detects motion, and you can watch it from home.