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geekhack Community => Off Topic => Topic started by: AchilleusGoyo on Tue, 07 December 2010, 03:39:24

Title: How to deal with someone stealing food?
Post by: AchilleusGoyo on Tue, 07 December 2010, 03:39:24
I live in the university dormitory. In the beginning of term I left a cake in the fridge and the next day I discovered it had been stolen. Recently, the thieving has intensified. Only last week someone stole my food three times. Some other students have had it even worse. Pizza, fruits, desserts, yoghurt and eggs have vanished from our fridge. What’s more, a cettle and a frying pan have also been stolen from the kitchen. Some senior students said it was the same thing a year ago, and they had no idea whether it was someone from the school or an outsider. This gets everyone annoyed to the max and the atmosphere between students is tense. Can anyone suggest anything that could be done?
Title: How to deal with someone stealing food?
Post by: sixty on Tue, 07 December 2010, 03:41:01
What an obscure first post!

I would suggest spoling food purposely with some type of crazy strong chili powder or similar. Teach those pricks a lesson.
Title: How to deal with someone stealing food?
Post by: bigpook on Tue, 07 December 2010, 03:44:40
make a chocolate cake that is dosed with ex-lax.
Title: How to deal with someone stealing food?
Post by: RoboKrikit on Tue, 07 December 2010, 03:49:14
It's probably someone who has been playing RPGs relentlessly, and forgot that IRL NPCs don't appreciate having their **** taken.  I suggest allocating more points to Perception and Luck on new character builds, and perhaps installing a hidden camera.

Alternately, bake a Post-It into a delicious chocolate cake that says I KNOW WHO YOU ARE AND NOW I AM INSIDE YOU.  Hopefully they will get the message.
Title: How to deal with someone stealing food?
Post by: db_Iodine on Tue, 07 December 2010, 03:52:24
Quote from: bigpook;258541
make a chocolate cake that is dosed with ex-lax.


This. And after it's been stolen try finding out whos been having a bad case of Diarrhea.
Title: How to deal with someone stealing food?
Post by: Brian8bit on Tue, 07 December 2010, 03:57:11
Quote from: RoboKrikit;258542
It's probably someone who has been playing RPGs relentlessly, and forgot that IRL NPCs don't appreciate having their **** taken.


(http://imgur.com/XoA4t.png)
Title: How to deal with someone stealing food?
Post by: majestouch on Tue, 07 December 2010, 04:27:29
One idea might be to change your diet; as it sounds like your fridge is full of junk food. Eat more tofu and veggies; this would lower the attractiveness of your stash:)

A more fail proof idea would be a wireless cam; i.e.: http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.26358

Fake cameras in obvious places work well as deterrents, but if you can afford pizza and cake, and the room can supply power to a fridge, then you can afford that camera and you have someplace to plug it in.
Title: How to deal with someone stealing food?
Post by: nanu on Tue, 07 December 2010, 04:47:03
Get your own small cookware/etc? Hook up your personal fridge to a webcam or the like based on some sensor/microcontroller combo.
Title: How to deal with someone stealing food?
Post by: Ekaros on Tue, 07 December 2010, 06:15:20
Laxatives and razor-blades and such. For utensils, storing in other areas might work...
Title: How to deal with someone stealing food?
Post by: kriminal on Tue, 07 December 2010, 06:41:45
Quote from: RoboKrikit;258542
It's probably someone who has been playing RPGs relentlessly, and forgot that IRL NPCs don't appreciate having their **** taken.  I suggest allocating more points to Perception and Luck on new character builds, and perhaps installing a hidden camera.

Alternately, bake a Post-It into a delicious chocolate cake that says I KNOW WHO YOU ARE AND NOW I AM INSIDE YOU.  Hopefully they will get the message.


muahahahahahahahahahahaha
Title: How to deal with someone stealing food?
Post by: db_Iodine on Tue, 07 December 2010, 06:44:26
1. Bake a cake
2. Masturbate on the cake to create a delicious crusting
3. Video camera recording the thief
4. Let the bastard know he ate your cum
5. ????
Title: How to deal with someone stealing food?
Post by: godly_music on Tue, 07 December 2010, 06:52:02
A few pointers:

- Stop eating

- Destroy the fridge with a crowbar

- Start stealing food yourself

- Move your bed to the kitchen

- Buy food that everybody hates

- Buy a mechanical keyboard
Title: How to deal with someone stealing food?
Post by: hoggy on Tue, 07 December 2010, 07:10:22
A sign asking them to stop stealing your food might actually be enough.

If not, get everyone to store their food in their rooms for a week - and only leave food in the fridge that needs to be cooked - and keep that to a minimum.  Write your name on everything on the fridge.

Cover your food with food colouring - green bread isn't desirable.

If it's still happening - Ex lax trap  - this works really well if it's exam time - they deserve it.
Title: How to deal with someone stealing food?
Post by: microsoft windows on Tue, 07 December 2010, 07:25:28
Using a video camera and a computer, you could easily construct a motion-activated video surveillance system in the kitchen. (You'd of course have to hide them and lock them down so they can't get stolen) Then you can find out who's stealing the food and report them to the authorities.
Title: How to deal with someone stealing food?
Post by: db_Iodine on Tue, 07 December 2010, 07:41:22
Quote from: godly_music;258582
A few pointers:

- Buy a mechanical keyboard


A mechanical keyboard is always a great solution. You can really do an endurance test on the keyboard, if you stalk in a dark corner in the middle of the night with the keyboard in hand. When you see someone steal your precious cake, approach him/her/it slowly, and hit him/her/it with the keyboard.
This would be a good way of determining if the keyboard is really "built like a tank".
Title: How to deal with someone stealing food?
Post by: microsoft windows on Tue, 07 December 2010, 07:45:47
I'd recommend a 122-key IBM for that.
Title: How to deal with someone stealing food?
Post by: Ekaros on Tue, 07 December 2010, 07:46:18
Quote from: db_Iodine;258603
A mechanical keyboard is always a great solution. You can really do an endurance test on the keyboard, if you stalk in a dark corner in the middle of the night with the keyboard in hand. When you see someone steal your precious cake, approach him/her/it slowly, and hit him/her/it with the keyboard.
This would be a good way of determining if the keyboard is really "built like a tank".


I think this could be good idea for researching effects on rivets for using M as an weapon... Ofcourse bolt-modded Ms should be fine as weapons...

Please help me out I realy need this info, also testing various ways of using M and placement of hits, might be in order...
Title: How to deal with someone stealing food?
Post by: keyboardlover on Tue, 07 December 2010, 07:50:57
Do what they did in "Salo" - hide nails in the food.

Just kidding - don't really do that. Also, please don't watch that movie.
Title: How to deal with someone stealing food?
Post by: itlnstln on Tue, 07 December 2010, 07:56:35
Already did.  I regret every day of my life now.  Salo was probably the only movie that nearly made me throw up.  Those crazy Italians.
Title: How to deal with someone stealing food?
Post by: keyboardlover on Tue, 07 December 2010, 08:49:35
Afterwards I was like 'well no wonder someone ran the director over with their car'.
Title: How to deal with someone stealing food?
Post by: isp on Tue, 07 December 2010, 10:13:19
place a bag of cheetos nearby for the perp....then keep your eye out the orange fingers
Title: How to deal with someone stealing food?
Post by: lowpoly on Tue, 07 December 2010, 10:13:27
Quote
How to deal with someone stealing food?

I think you were looking for Something Awful (http://forums.somethingawful.com/forumdisplay.php?forumid=1).
Title: How to deal with someone stealing food?
Post by: itlnstln on Tue, 07 December 2010, 10:30:51
Just looking at the link, I think I am not going to click through.
Title: How to deal with someone stealing food?
Post by: RoboKrikit on Tue, 07 December 2010, 10:43:41
(http://i.imgur.com/zBN22.jpg)
Title: How to deal with someone stealing food?
Post by: anthropornis on Tue, 07 December 2010, 10:50:13
I bet its starving broke students who have no other option. Talk with the other students in the dorm and see if you can set up a special pantry/closet that has food for those who might are less fortunate. That will prevent them from having to take your food (which they probably feel really ashamed about).
Title: How to deal with someone stealing food?
Post by: KillerBee on Tue, 07 December 2010, 10:50:55
With that face I dont think so kitty... how bout some friskies instead?
Title: How to deal with someone stealing food?
Post by: db_Iodine on Tue, 07 December 2010, 12:03:12
Quote from: anthropornis;258709
I bet its starving broke students who have no other option. Talk with the other students in the dorm and see if you can set up a special pantry/closet that has food for those who might are less fortunate. That will prevent them from having to take your food (which they probably feel really ashamed about).


You have too much faith in people.
Title: How to deal with someone stealing food?
Post by: woody on Tue, 07 December 2010, 12:39:56
Quote from: ripster;258711
Speaking of food why don't more cultures eat cats.

There is a WW abundance of them and I'd assume they taste like chicken.

They taste like rabbit.
Title: How to deal with someone stealing food?
Post by: Lanx on Tue, 07 December 2010, 12:56:06
http://secure.sciencecompany.com/Phenolphthalein-30ml-1-oz-P6364C625.aspx (http://secure.sciencecompany.com/Phenolphthalein-30ml-1-oz-P6364C625.aspx)
A white or pale yellow crystalline powder, C20H14O4, used as an acid-base indicator, in making dyes, and formerly in medicine as a laxative. Because of its toxicity, it is no longer used in over-the-counter laxatives.

i think it works fast? just buy a few cakes drop them in and see who spends all their time in the bathroom.

I'd be pissed if ppl started eating my food, so let them eat it, but they gotta pay, with lolz.
Title: How to deal with someone stealing food?
Post by: itlnstln on Tue, 07 December 2010, 13:00:04
Ah, Phenolphthalein.  I used that stuff in Chemistry in High School.  Our stuff was always in liquid form, though.  I guess you could dissolve it in water.  Then, you could just drop it in your food, and they won't be able to tell.
Title: How to deal with someone stealing food?
Post by: Zen on Tue, 07 December 2010, 13:34:16
Quote from: anthropornis;258709
I bet its starving broke students who have no other option. Talk with the other students in the dorm and see if you can set up a special pantry/closet that has food for those who might are less fortunate. That will prevent them from having to take your food (which they probably feel really ashamed about).


What a great first post from a new member with both feet solidly
planted in the ground !!

For most of the other suggestions :
Does the word 'vigilante' mean anything to you ?
You want to establish CCT surveillance in a space that doesn't belong to you?
Have a nice time being gang-raped in jail !
Title: How to deal with someone stealing food?
Post by: hoggy on Tue, 07 December 2010, 13:38:08
Yeah, just bash em with a 'board.  I've got an old fujitsu peerless I keep just in case someone breaks in and steals my food...
Title: How to deal with someone stealing food?
Post by: itlnstln on Tue, 07 December 2010, 13:38:15
Yeah, in Federal Pound-Me-In-The-Ass Prison.
Title: How to deal with someone stealing food?
Post by: Findecanor on Tue, 07 December 2010, 13:55:05
Get one of those novelty items that triggers a blasting cap when it is lifted. Rig it and place it into a plastic container in the back of the fridge where nobody will touch it by mistake.

There are many types of firecrackers and novelty items that go bang. I remember from my childhood there was a string type of firecracker that went off when you pulled it. If you could rig something like that to the lid and bottom of the container then it wouldn't go off until someone actually opened the lid.

Quote from: ripster;258666
Drop out.  College is highly overrated.

Worked for Bill Gates.  And many others.
It worked for those who were quite rich before they dropped out, and had been fortunate enough to have had invested in a venture which took off.

Myself... I was not rich to begin with and I dropped out for something that did not take off. Dropping out will hurt you in the job market, even if you don't apply for a position in the same field. The first question you will get at any job interview will always be "Why did you drop out of college?". I eventually got back to college and got my degree but, many years later than I should have otherwise. I now make more than I would have otherwise.
(Not that I view Ripster's comment as serious to begin with, but I had something to say)
Title: How to deal with someone stealing food?
Post by: Voixdelion on Sat, 18 December 2010, 16:24:00
Quote from: anthropornis;258709
I bet its starving broke students who have no other option. Talk with the other students in the dorm and see if you can set up a special pantry/closet that has food for those who might are less fortunate. That will prevent them from having to take your food (which they probably feel really ashamed about).


Points for an enlightened approach.  We often forget, or simply don't realize, that most people don't actually TRY to be *******s on purpose.  Even if it IS someone being an ******* on purpose, that was a really nice idea that just might guilt the ******* into stopping anyway.  

Keep killing em with kindness...=)
Title: How to deal with someone stealing food?
Post by: Voixdelion on Sat, 18 December 2010, 17:26:38
Quote from: db_Iodine;258764
You have too much faith in people.

But the thing of it is, why not give the benefit of the doubt?  Joyce Meyers said something on a tape I heard that helped me understand something about the whole notion of "turning the other cheek" that previously had gone against the grain of my personality.  To me it was a concept that felt "weak."  But what she said I actually made my boyfriend listen to as well and it actually made him cry.  What essentially it boiled down to was this:  the point of "love thine enemy" was NOT because they were deserving, but quite practically that it was really the only way to WIN against hate.  Fight fire with WATER right? Fighting fire with fire is a good way to set everything ablaze.

A while back I had a realization shortly after  slamming the door in the face of someone who wanted me to sign something  against gay marriage that I missed an opportunity.  I personally think  it is no one else's business except those being married and since straight  people have been holding marriage anything but sacred I find that  particular legal stand quite a bit offensive in general.  I reacted  before thinking about it , but later I regretted that I didn't choose a  higher road.  

I realized that what I OUGHT to have done was open a  discussion with this person if I am serious about making my existence  worthwhile in making the world a better place.  I reasoned that if I had chosen instead to talk with them, there were  several possible outcomes:  

a) I could  open my own mind to a different opinion that may have had  some validity (And no matter how unlikely that may have seemed, without  hearing the opposition out I am in no place to judge, right?  I used to  watch that TV show "The Practice" and was surprised to find that I was  swayed on some opinions that I held pretty strongly before hearing some  perspectives that I had not previously considered on that show.)

b) I could use that same reasoning to try and share my point of view  with the petitioner and perhaps change HIS mind, or at least give him  some food for thought instead of leaving him thinking I was rude to him  and adding fuel to the fire and giving him more reason to perpetuate  hate and misunderstanding.  

c) At the very least, even if neither of the above happened and we were  unable to come to some meeting of the minds, I could delay him in his  route, effectively preventing him from garnering more support in the  community for an idea that I didn't agree with.  I can see that as productive and it would have left me feeling much better that I had at least tried and maybe succeeded in slowing the progress of hate and I wouldn't have been muttering about things in an unpleasant mood after the encounter the way I was.  

The path I took did nothing for anyone except put me out of sorts  and only left me in an unpleasant  mood.  Consequently, I vowed to try something different the next time  something like that happened, and I actually took a few minutes to talk  with the Jehovah's witnesses that came by my house a few months ago with  that experience in mind.  It started out as an exercise for me, but it turned out to be a surprisingly good one.  I find that I enjoy talking with LaKeisha when she comes by about every other week now, and I daresay I may have even made a new friend.

 Turns out she is not at all like I would have expected and though I am  far from "converted" I am not even thinking that is actually the goal of  what she does.  She speaks of the kingdom to come, and I tend to speak  of our responsibility to the kingdom as it is now instead of looking to  afterwards and I think she is not the zealot I would classified her as  before taking the time to talk with her.

Sorry for the tangent, but I think that faith is rewarded more often than we know.  And it isn't as if it needs to be BLIND faith in this case of disappearing dorm food.  Its at least worth a try and can't hurt any, right?  If the thieving hasn't abated after that then more punitive measures can be looked into at that point also.
Title: How to deal with someone stealing food?
Post by: Ekaros on Sat, 18 December 2010, 18:09:58
Quote from: ripster;265456
The OP made this one post and hasn't been back since.

You spelled kettle wrong.  Yoghurt is acceptable if you are a foreigner.

Welcome to Geekhack and a mechanical keyboard would have solved this problem, or at least made you forget about it as Voix wisely suggests.


Yeah, IBM and commando mask...

Which reminds me of the fact that I still don't have that 5.5mm I need to check my rivets...
Title: How to deal with someone stealing food?
Post by: 8_INCH_FLOPPY on Sat, 18 December 2010, 19:54:41
ಠ_ಠ

All of you..... Seriously
Title: How to deal with someone stealing food?
Post by: hoggy on Sun, 19 December 2010, 02:38:45
I always try to be nice to such door callers with ideas different to my own - while I don't believe in gods, I believe people should be free to believe in whatever they want to believe in - as long as they accept that others have the same right to not believe.

Some people twist themselves up inside with stuff that really isn't their business (gay marriage for instance), well, you can waste their time, but you won't change their mind...


Quote from: Voixdelion;265444
But the thing of it is, why not give the benefit of the doubt?  Joyce Meyers said something on a tape I heard that helped me understand something about the whole notion of "turning the other cheek" that previously had gone against the grain of my personality.  To me it was a concept that felt "weak."  But what she said I actually made my boyfriend listen to as well and it actually made him cry.  What essentially it boiled down to was this:  the point of "love thine enemy" was NOT because they were deserving, but quite practically that it was really the only way to WIN against hate.  Fight fire with WATER right? Fighting fire with fire is a good way to set everything ablaze.

A while back I had a realization shortly after  slamming the door in the face of someone who wanted me to sign something  against gay marriage that I missed an opportunity.  I personally think  it is no one else's business except those being married and since straight  people have been holding marriage anything but sacred I find that  particular legal stand quite a bit offensive in general.  I reacted  before thinking about it , but later I regretted that I didn't choose a  higher road.  

I realized that what I OUGHT to have done was open a  discussion with this person if I am serious about making my existence  worthwhile in making the world a better place.  I reasoned that if I had chosen instead to talk with them, there were  several possible outcomes:  

a) I could  open my own mind to a different opinion that may have had  some validity (And no matter how unlikely that may have seemed, without  hearing the opposition out I am in no place to judge, right?  I used to  watch that TV show "The Practice" and was surprised to find that I was  swayed on some opinions that I held pretty strongly before hearing some  perspectives that I had not previously considered on that show.)

b) I could use that same reasoning to try and share my point of view  with the petitioner and perhaps change HIS mind, or at least give him  some food for thought instead of leaving him thinking I was rude to him  and adding fuel to the fire and giving him more reason to perpetuate  hate and misunderstanding.  

c) At the very least, even if neither of the above happened and we were  unable to come to some meeting of the minds, I could delay him in his  route, effectively preventing him from garnering more support in the  community for an idea that I didn't agree with.  I can see that as productive and it would have left me feeling much better that I had at least tried and maybe succeeded in slowing the progress of hate and I wouldn't have been muttering about things in an unpleasant mood after the encounter the way I was.  

The path I took did nothing for anyone except put me out of sorts  and only left me in an unpleasant  mood.  Consequently, I vowed to try something different the next time  something like that happened, and I actually took a few minutes to talk  with the Jehovah's witnesses that came by my house a few months ago with  that experience in mind.  It started out as an exercise for me, but it turned out to be a surprisingly good one.  I find that I enjoy talking with LaKeisha when she comes by about every other week now, and I daresay I may have even made a new friend.

 Turns out she is not at all like I would have expected and though I am  far from "converted" I am not even thinking that is actually the goal of  what she does.  She speaks of the kingdom to come, and I tend to speak  of our responsibility to the kingdom as it is now instead of looking to  afterwards and I think she is not the zealot I would classified her as  before taking the time to talk with her.

Sorry for the tangent, but I think that faith is rewarded more often than we know.  And it isn't as if it needs to be BLIND faith in this case of disappearing dorm food.  Its at least worth a try and can't hurt any, right?  If the thieving hasn't abated after that then more punitive measures can be looked into at that point also.