The D.C. Me: Dear office creamer thieves...

It is the chronic tale in any office- You need "get-up-and-go" at work, so you drink coffee, but you like cream in your coffee, so you bring in creamer. But, everyone else in your office also likes cream! Cream is great in coffee right (I wouldn't know, I don't drink coffee)?? So one person takes a harmless splash here and there, not considering all of the other people taking harmless splashes. Then, all of the sudden, the creamer is almost gone!

This is the tale of Erin in my office. She drinks coffee and brings in her creamer, which usually ends up getting used by everyone else! Fed up with the situation, we searched for a solution to the problem.

We brainstormed and racked our heads on this seemingly simple problem. We came up with the following possible solutions:

Revenge:

You can poison the creamer, with laxatives or something, so that the thieves will pay dearly for their use. But could you get in trouble for this? And is this really necessary? Then you have to last without creamer, because you don't want to get sick yourself. But this doesn't help you know who is stealing your creamer, unless you stake yourself out in the bathroom all day.

Anger/Threatening:

"Stop stealing my creamer!" and "Beware: I have the flu" are other approaches. You can write angry messages and post them in the kitchen or on your creamer, but as long as the person feels invisible or unidentified, these angry messages have no effect on them, and no one would believe such a silly threat on creamer. I mean, who drinks straight from a creamer container anyways, how would your flu get into the cream?

Slyness:

Another approach is to have two creamers, one in the front of the fridge that you just let go bad, and another hidden in the way way back behind everyones lunch boxes that you use. Eventually someone will figure you out though. And your still getting stolen from.

Sympathy:

The tearjerker approach. Extensive research (Google-ing the subject) has shown that getting sympathy and understanding from the culprits works best. If you make them feel bad about your situation, maybe they will cease stealing from you. Below is Erin's approach to the problem.

I will update at a later time, if this approach worked.

P.S. During our research, I found an awesome 'to-be' product, not out for mass production yet. If you are having problems with people stealing your lunch, try this trick!! A moldy looking sandwich bag!