Not at my work (as far as I’m aware) but at the soon-to-be-mrs Pinetree’s office (at a large uni in the south-west)
This may seem fairly small, and insignificant, but I think it’s a bit disconcerting:
My missus buys a box of porridge sachets and takes this box to her office, and places it in her desk drawer. It contains 24 sachets, and she has 1 for lunch every day (so it’s basically a month’s worth of lunches.)
It started out with 1 or 2 sachets going missing which, while annoying, was ultimately harmless.
A couple of weeks later she noticed a good handful had been pinched, so she put the box in a locked drawer and the thefts stopped.
The next month, she bought two boxes of porridge and took them into work, forgetting to put them in the locked drawer. She took a week off and arrived back to work to find one box (which she’d opened) completely empty, and the other box (which was left sealed) half empty and the lid replaced to look like it had never been opened!
To top it all off, she took in a pack of biccies yesterday, put in the top drawer unopened, and arrived in this morning to find they’ve walked too!
I find this absolutely galling- just because something’s not locked in a drawer doesn’t make it fair game!
Given the grand sum of the thefts totals under a tenner, it hardly seems worth kicking up stink over, however I’m of the opinion that theft is theft. Also, that’s now £10 she’s had to spend twice to replace the ones which have been pilfered.
We’re pretty sure it’s one of the night porters or cleaners, as they’re the only people who have access to her office after hours, but as the office doesn’t have CCTV, it’s impossible to prove. I doubt the uni services would be willing to install CCTV for the sake of a few boxes of porridge and a pack of biscuits.
Theft of property (of any kind) from anyone else is an instantly sackable offence at her work, so although it’s a fairly small theft, the consequences for the culprit, if caught, would be quite significant.
We’re not really sure what to do with the whole situation, as she’ll feel a bit stupid going to the campus management about something so small, but this really can’t be tolerated.
Other than making sure her desk is locked, and preventing the thefts, does anybody have any ideas?