I work with some rude people...

I have shared a locker with a co-worker for 3½ years now at work, to keep an extra coat and umbrella in case it rains or gets cold, and we also keep lunches in there. We also let two of the other guys in the lab use it to put their gym bags if they're playing basketball at lunch or going out of town right after work. Today, I went to go in the locker to see if I needed to bring anything out to the car at lunch, and it had a lock on it! I looked up, and all my belongings were sitting on top of the lockers, free for anyone to walk by and take! The hallway the lockers are in is a busy area during the day because it's by the rear exit of the building and the time clock. We never keep valuables in there because 3-4 of us use it, and so we never locked it for that reason either. The one next to us is never locked, but she has so much crap in it that she built her own shelves to put in it

I texted the guy who's locker it originally was that I share with to see if maybe he put a lock on it, though I knew if it was him he would never have put my stuff out there in the hall like that. He was extremely mad too. When I got back from lunch with Rob (who told me he'd give me a pair of bolt cutters to bring back to work LOL) I went straight to HR. The head of HR was on his way to a meeting but told me he definitely wanted to hear more about the situation and called me when the meeting was over.

Went upstairs, told him the situation, and he was angry about it too. He apologized that it happened, and said that he would leave a note on the locker until Monday to see him, and if no one came forward, they would have the facilities department cut the lock off and remove the items and bring them upstairs to be claimed, flushing out the person who did it. He wanted to put a second lock on it so they had to ask for it to be removed, but there is only room for one lock on it. I told him to cut that one off and put a different one on so they couldn't get in When they asked to have it cut, you'd know who it was!

No one can believe how RUDE some people are, to take someone else's belongings from a closed locker, possibly have thrown out some stuff that was in there, pack up my tupperware stuff in bag and take my coat and umbrella out and just set it out in the open so they can take the locker!! Way too much gall! I really would LOVE to know who it was, too. Especially if its someone who's been there awhile I could barely see the straps to a backpack through the small vent holes in the side of the locker. Oooooh so angry.

I would be so peeved right now. No one has the right to do that.

I like the idea of putting a different lock on so the person has to identify his/herself in order to get his/her belongings back.

That is definitely sooo wrong! What is up this persons wazoo? I live in NYC and around here you have to share almost everything. If you don't want to, you have to pay for your privacy or pay for the attitude.
I'm a scenic artist and work for a new company but with people I have worked with previously. This one sales guy, we will call him John, likes to help himself to any milk thats in the refrigerator. John not only drank more then half of my milk in 3 days, but also opened it for me! I put my name on it, didn't matter.......I hid it behind things, didn't matter............I wrote a note on paper "PLEASE DON'T DRINK MY MILK!", didn't matter............one of my bosses told him to stop drinking my milk, he apologized to me saying he thought one of our bosses bought it....It had my name on it, HELLO!? Still didn't matter! Some how by the end of the day my milk was gone! Even weirder, he uses it for coffee, I can't even drink coffee!
I can't even imagine sharing locker space with other people. Im glad HR is doing something about it. They should be providing private locker space for everyone......

They actually did order more lockers at one point for a different side of the building not too long ago. I voluntarily shared with the other person, because I keep my valuables and purse and whatnot in my personal lab drawer with me during the day. The company has ~300 people, probably over 220 that work in the building. I'm not sure how many are in the lab alone, but that'd be a lot of lockers to have in the building! People with cubicles wouldn't really need one I'd imagine, because they can keep their stuff with them near/in the desk with more space than what we are given in the lab.

I'm just beyond peeved that someone had the audacity to do such a thing! The maturity level of people I work with is unbelievable sometimes! To actually remove my items (and possibly the other guy's items, since he had some notebooks in there I didn't see set out) and take it for yourself

We had a lunch theft problem for awhile, at this job AND the last job I worked at. At the last job, they left notices in the cafe area about being terminated for taking any item from anyone's lunch or that didn't have their name on it. They threatened it again where I work now. One guy brought in ketchup and mustard for a cookout, and put it in the fridge to bring home later, and someone stole that too! I know everyone complains our job doesn't pay enough, but it really pays more than a lot of places in the area! Definitely more than a grocery store or Walmart .. so why do you need to thieve other people's stuff?!

SO rude! We have lunch thieves at our workplace as well. Dana was a victim a few times, but now I sit close to the lunchroom and can keep an eye on things.

that is so rude

I am in a not so great mood I could come beat them up for you.

That is so wrong. I hope they catch who did it and they make it right!!

What you can do is put some plaster of paris or cast plaster and make a big old ball around the lock. They whoever did it would have to break it open anyway ruining their lock.

We have had lunch thieves where I work too. I have had little chocolate bars stolen. I had a half eaten kitkat bar stolen. I was tempted at the time to melt down some chocolate exlax and mold them into pretty little "gourmet" candies. I didn't want to get accused of poisoning someone though.

Originally Posted by GoldyCat

I like the idea of putting a different lock on so the person has to identify his/herself in order to get his/her belongings back.

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me too. Unless they sneak in bolt cutters, but they'd have to be quick!

Originally Posted by Catkiki

We have had lunch thieves where I work too. I have had little chocolate bars stolen. I had a half eaten kitkat bar stolen. .

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Ewww, seriously?! Who in their right mind steals a half eaten chocolate bar! Talk about desperate.

I hope they get sorted out Tara!

I know. That sucks. I had to deal with lunch thieves at one place where I worked... a radio/TV station... and the lunchroom was on the TV side. I reported to work at 4 am so by 8 or 9 I was pretty hungry... and... no.... lunch... tried everything ... signs, threats... no avail. I begged my boss to get a small fridge to keep in OUR news room... at first he thought it was funny that my food was disappearing. Huh??? It's not about the tuna fish and apple, it's about taking something that does not belong to YOU!!

We finally got that fridge and you know what? The boss used it more than any of US!

Years ago the place where my dad worked had a lunch thief. This person ate everybodys lunch. Dad finally got so tired of it that Mom made exlax brownies. They were eaten, too. When the guy called in sick the next morning, they figured out who the culprit was.

We don’t have anyone who steals food in our dept. But one of our coworkers makes messes in our fridge and in the microwave, blames them on everybody else, and will not clean up after herself. There's moldy food in the fridge and the microwave looks like something exploded in it. Disgusting.

I brought my own fridge to work and keep it under my desk, where nobody can see it. And I don't use the microwave. It's too filthy....we are talking science project material!

Originally Posted by Winchester

We donâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t have anyone who steals food in our dept. But one of our coworkers makes messes in our fridge and in the microwave, blames them on everybody else, and will not clean up after herself. There's moldy food in the fridge and the microwave looks like something exploded in it. Disgusting.

I brought my own fridge to work and keep it under my desk, where nobody can see it. And I don't use the microwave. It's too filthy....we are talking science project material!

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I don't mind cleaning out the fridge at work here and there, but the microwave, sink, and especially bathroom is another story . You make a mess, clean up after yourself !

I would like to have a camera in the locker area tomorrow to see what happens.
We have people at work put plastic cups of water in the and for a while we could have days with 8-10 cups in the ! Drop the cups out when you leave!

So, the guy in HR forgot to put a note on the locker - I emailed him today to ask if any headway had been made. He came down to put a note on it, and at the same time, a woman who works across from my lab asked him why she had to call him (regarding note on locker). He told her that it was mine and asked if she removed belongings.

MY BOSS DID IT! He thought the locker belonged to a girl he fired ~3 years ago, because her name was on one of the notebooks (she worked in the same lab I work in, so we kept her notes), and that the stuff was hers from that long ago, took my stuff out, tossed the notebooks, and gave the other woman the locker!!

So that has been figured out. The woman offered to "Share" with me like I was sharing with the other guy and gave me the combination, but I'll probably share with the same person I'd been sharing with (he got another locker with one of the other people we used to share with).

I went and asked my boss "So, no one uses locker 20 anymore? That was my stuff you took out." Funny thing was, the guy who's locker it was originally was standing in the same room and said NO WAY! My boss was the last person I thought would do that. So he said that they are going to try and make a rule you have to have a name on the locker, and if you don't within a certain time period the lock will be cut, because for all we know a few people who've been fired kept a lock on it and they're being unused.

Glad you figured it out, but it seems strange your boss would just toss things out without asking any questions first. Did he even apologize to you? I hope the information in the notebooks he threw away wasn't critical to your work.

We have all our standard operating procedures available online, the notebooks are for special things. I've been doing my job for over 3 years now, so I've got it pretty well memorized. We used to pass the notebooks onto new people to copy notes from.

He semi-apologized, and then later when he saw me, he said "You'reee out!" umpire style. The woman he gave the locker to is pestering the crud out of me to share with her now, and I really don't want to I'm kind of annoyed no one offered to give it back to me, just have me share it with her seemed to be the easiest answer. I'll just go back to sharing with the same people I was sharing with before - she already has so much stuff in it, I can't fit my belongings in there anyway! She tried to make it seem like it was "OK" to have my old locker because the one next to it used to be hers, but "another girl stole it from me!"