A man who went to extreme measures to figure out who was taking his lunch at work says he refuses to apologize to his coworker who ended up in the hospital shortly after eating his laxative-laced soup.
A user named EhnArGee sought the opinion of Reddit's legendary "Am I The A**hole" forum after taking matters into his own hards to stop a mystery food thief at his place of employment.
At first he tried labeling his food "please don't touch." Then he tried asking around for leads. He even resorted to buying lunch every day for a few weeks. But when a friend told him about a Reel where a girl added laxative to her food to see who was stealing it, the poster knew he had to try it out for himself.
"What I wasn't expecting," he wrote, "was for the girl (late 20s) to have an allergic reaction to an ingredient and end up going to the hospital."
After work that day, he and eight of his coworkers visited their sickened coworker in the hospital, where the man confessed to what he did. According to his post, six coworkers "were disgusted" by his actions, one was "whatever" about it, and "the last guy said she shouldn't have been touching my food to begin with."
He told the coworker he hoped she felt better, but would not apologize.
The next day he says his supervisor called and told him he had to apologize and would not be welcomed back to work until he did. Hours later, his supervisor -- an HR employee -- sent a text telling him the coworker did not need to apologize, and "it's up to her discretion if she chooses to apologize or not for stealing my food."
The drama continued throughout the day, with the male coworker who sided with him at the hospital tipping him off that the hospitalized coworker allegedly planned to take legal action.
"The [supervisor] called me about an hour ago telling me she's with the girl in the hospital and now's my time to apologize or I can come in person to do it and I said 'absolutely not,'" the Redditor said, doubling down. "She kept insisting but in a tone where I was 100% at fault, not her, who has been stealing my food for 2 and half months straight."
The top comments were supportive of the poster, and incredulous of his coworker's behavior. One commentor asked, "Why is this such a common issue? What is wrong with people?"
Many Redditors relayed similar experiences with office food theft, sharing their own deterrent methods, like labeling all their food in shared refrigerators with "CAUTION CONTAINS MIRALAX LAXATIVE." The comment continued: "Have I ever used or even bought miralax? No. Does my food get stolen anymore? Also no."
Among the disdain for food thieves, plenty of people noted that it's particularly foolish to steal food if you have allergies. "She could be allergic to literally anything in food she didn't prepare, she's the one playing with her own [life]," one reply said.
The post garnered 18,000 upvotes and over 7,000 comments in its first day. In the 15th hour, the user updated with an apparent conclusion in his favor.
"One of my coworkers is now in the hospital for the same conditions: big stomachache and rash line down the stomach lining. Doctors are now certain it wasn't the laxative as she didn't eat my soup compared to the first girl," the update says.
This was not quite the denouement, however, as EhnArGee soon shared an ominous late-breaking development, telling Reddit he was just informed by his "home office rep" that he was "being sued...by the first girl and her husband," although "she's unsure what charges are being brought."
The saga continues.
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