how to stop people stealing your food?

pippaaaaaaa

right, this is slightly mse as it is costing me a fortune in lost food.

basically i live on a corridor of about 35-40 people, with a shared kitchen. we have cupboards that can be padlocked (and mine are) but the fridge and freezers are communal. someone keeps stealing food, and i've had 3 meals pinched in 48 hours. i literally only keep butter and milk in the fridge now. i don't want to be in the habit of only buying food each day, because then i'm going to wind up living off ready meals, as it's impossible to buy single portions of fresh ingredients, and i resent having them stolen!

so, does anyone know any way around having food stolen? has anyone seen any lockable food storage containers i could put all my food in for the fridge & freezer?

no one's figured out who the food thief is yet, and i think they're stealing food at odd times of day/night when no one's around so as not to get caught, so confronting them isn't an option because nobody knows for sure. with so many people on the corridor i also don't know half of them because i never see them, so i can't talk to everyone individually i'm hoping for cheap solutions!

MusicalLawyer

You could buy one of those small fridges to keep in your room? They aren't very expensive and would fit on your desk, as well as under it. That way you can keep you milk and butter in it.

What you could also do, is if you cook things like SpagBol - eat half, then put the other half in a container and keep it in your fridge in your room for the next day. That way you wouldn't have to buy food every day, and it means that you won't have to live on ready meals

I hope this helped.

VfM4meplse

Times don't change, do they? It used to pee me off no end to get back in the evenings and find that I couldn't even make a cup of tea because some lazy art student had used my milk on their cornflakes! In the end I bought a mini-fridge for my own room - not uncommon when I was a student 20 years ago, but these days the choice is far wider.

Lifeforms

A mini fridge is the way to go. Even if you put it in a locked box in the fridge, you'd be looking at something like a cashbox which you'd not fit stuff in, anything bigger, and you'd get complaints from others. Bodging up a plastic tub with a padlock will just get nicked etc.

Go for the mini-fridge and consider leaving presents for the food thief to "enjoy". Some nice chocolate muffins with a huge lump of chilli in, or even better laxatives. You may sit and think this will cause some ill feeling if they spend the best part of the morning on the toilet, but no more than stealing the food does to begin with. The habit is as well that once one person has done it, some others might be stealing alongside trying their luck.

bouncydog1

If you can have a mini fridge this is the best way to go. If this is not possible a plastic carrier hanging outside of your window (providing you are not on ground floor) would keep stuff cold.

You could put food dye in your milk - green milk is quite offputting although it won't cause any harm. Definately agree with the laxatives in the muffins - it won't take too long to find who the culprit is. Just don't tell anyone else to tip them off - it might be your best mate doing the taking!

You could also try the usual noticies - "we are all on a tight budget I can't afford to feed anybody other than myself".

Discreetly apply food dye to the bottom of food containers so it stains the fingers of whoever picks it up.

If all else fails then report to your communal halls officer - they will have seen it all before and might be able to offer an alternative solution.

Person_one

http://www.passiveaggressivenotes.com/2010/08/01/those-heirloom-tomatoes-had-sentimental-value/

devildog

Just a thought-not all Unis allow a mini fridge in rooms (unless for medical purposes and you have permission)

Don't know how strict they are with this though or whether they actually bother to check.

It's a shame you can't install a mini security type camera and catch them in the act Then name and shame!!

agrinnall

I wouldn't dream of suggesting that you heavily lace an item of food with laxative and wait to see who spends the next few hours in the toilet :eek:

adouglasmhor

If you can get hold of some http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phenolphthalein it is hilarious, it gets reabsorbed by the difestive system so has a long lasting effect.

serious_saver

Things really don't change!

I ended up buying a table top fridge for my room. When my brother was having the same problems in uni a couple of years later I gave it to him and a couple after that he sold it, for nearly as much as I paid, to a student who was having the same problems.

It really was well worth the investment to know that my food was safe from other students.

vb1986

I had exactly the same problem when I was at university. We weren't allowed to have mini-fridges in our rooms except for medical reasons. I started writing my name on food packaging in big and clear writing, and that seemed to help.