Every place has its etiquette, even workplaces. One common rule in many of them – don’t eat someone else’s food. Unfortunately, some people think it doesn’t apply to them. Research shows that about 18% of American employees admit to eating someone else’s lunch from the office fridge.
But some employees come up with ways to fight it. This worker caught their lunch thief red-handed on camera and had definitive proof that the lunch wasn’t disappearing into thin air for three months straight. After going to HR, the office food burglar had to issue an apology and pay for the meals she had stolen over the years.
An office food burglar was exposed when her victim caught her on camera
Image credits: zinkevych (not the actual photo)
After HR got involved, she had to pay up for her misdemeanors and suffer the shame of what she did
Image credits: DC Studio (not the actual photo)
Image credits: GlobeCoder
Lunch thieves can be driven by low job satisfaction or animosity toward team members
Some employees take the concept of colleagues being a family and the saying “Sharing is caring” too far. Yes, a friendly atmosphere where coworkers care about each other and share things is one of the staples of any workplace. But it’s best to keep the sharing part to things like pens, sticky notes, and slices of za during Pizza Friday.
Lots of workers bring their own lunches to work, not just ones who have strict dietary restrictions. According to a 2025 poll by LinkedIn, 71% of American employees bring their own lunches to work. Many are doing so for financial reasons: with the current economic situation, people just can’t afford to eat out for lunch anymore.
So, it adds to the insult when someone steals the meal you prepped because you have to budget. It’s no surprise that the OP of this story was to be reimbursed $340 for the three years’ worth of meals stolen.
The phenomenon of stealing a coworker’s lunch can be difficult to understand. If it’s a one-off event, it might be understandable. But who does it every day for three days in a row? Such instances don’t seem like accidents where a coworker was hungry and had nothing themselves, but rather a strange demonstration of power and bullying.
Research shows that there are different reasons why people steal their coworkers’ lunches. Some do it because they just see an opportunity. They believe there is a zero chance that they will get caught, and that perceived lack of consequences is often the main driver.
In other cases, lunch burglars are born out of resentment. It’s not just about hate towards the person whose lunch it is. If an employee is dissatisfied with the working conditions, they’re more likely to snatch that container out of the fridge and think of it as revenge against the company or the team.
Many people steal from their workplaces, but they rarely see themselves as the bad guys
Serial lunch stealers are a breed of their own, but stealing from the workplace is a more common behavior than people like to admit. Research shows that 67% of American workers have committed at least one type of theft at their current workplace.
What kinds of theft, you ask? This includes everything from office supplies, giving away discounted services, or simply stealing cash. Some understand taking personal time during working hours as theft as well. Things like performing personal tasks, taking longer during lunch breaks, or taking naps are the most common types of “theft” that people report.
Food isn’t the only thing that isn’t safe among colleagues. According to a poll by the UK-based retailer Furniture at Work, employees steal things like pens (40%), stationery (40%), notebooks (29%), and Tupperware (22%) the most. However, other things like homeware, USB sticks, tea or coffee, chargers, money, mugs, and phones aren’t safe either.
But few would admit that doing things like this makes them bad people. As a professor of psychology and marketing at the University of Texas at Austin, Art Markman explained to The Cut, when we steal, we think we’re victims of circumstances. When others do it, it’s a mark of their character. Markman says it’s called the fundamental attribution error.
“Most people want to generally go around seeing themselves as being honest, good folks,” he said. “But if you give people a chance to do something that violates the rules, and there’s probably not a big chance they’re going to get caught, you’ll find a fair number of people who would be willing to do stuff that they would say to your face they’d never do.”
Some commenters felt the thief deserved a harsher punishment: “She should have been fired”
Others shared similar stories about their office lunch burglars
