WWYD-coworker weirdness

[dakcp2001]

This is something that happened about a month ago, but it seems to be happening again.

Our company bought us a Keurig as a gift for the breakroom. I brought in 2 boxes of k cups to put out to share with everyone. I came in, put down the kcups & went into restroom to wash my hands. I heard someone come in & I came out to see a coworker, and she was acting weird, grabbed her backpack & like took off. I thought it was weird, but thought she must be late or something. Then I noticed the boxes of KCUPS were gone. No one else came in, so it had to be her and she had been acting bizzarre. This is a grown woman who makes $26 an hour and has a good job, drives a BMW SUV and is well dressed. I was sort of taken aback by her behavior. Never would have suspected her as a sticky fingers.

I asked her if she saw them, and she said no. I then explaind that I had just put them down & she was the only one who came in so she was looking pretty guilty. SHE then told my supervisor that I was harrassing her!! So the supervisor comes to me and asks what happened, so I told her. The supervisor asked to see the coworkers backpack and low and behold, the 2 boxes of k cups were in there. Coworker gets hysterical crying and makes a big scene and tells supervisor she has no idea how they got there and I must have put them in there to get her in trouble. (right, part of my elaborate plan to go buy them just to stick em in your backpack)

Supervisor tells us both to knock it off, not to speak of it again and looks at us both like we are idiots. I have since moved and gotten a new job, and have read on facebook that people are having a theft issue in the breakroom. Wallets, cell phones, and other items missing from the breakroom. The supervisor has not said anything, should I mention to former my coworkers about the incident? I would want to know if my coworker was a theif. My df thinks I should just stay out of it beacuse the supervisor knows who to suspect.

Would you say something? BTW I was Per Diem so not super close with anyone there, but friendly with a few (one who had her whole purse gone through & is missing a bunch of stuff)

 

[wdwmom2]

My df thinks I should just stay out of it beacuse the supervisor knows who to suspect.

This ^^^^

ETA: If the problems of theft are on Facebook, and many items have been stolen, I'm guessing that everyone in the office knows it is a problem. They probably know about your Kcups and who did it. That's way I would not get involved.

Your former co-workers need to be proactive. Don't bring anything into the office that they don't need. Including purses, lock them in the trunk of the car. What they do bring in, they need to keep it with them, at all times. That is the only way to prevent theft.

 

[Shmily1]

I would tell her because if it was me in her shoes, I would want someone to tell me.

 

[dakcp2001]

I think your right, I just have that little nagging feeling of guilt like this could have been prevented.

 

[Liberty Belle]

I don't know, I think I'd tell the ones you're friendly with. You want to protect your friends.

 

[tlbwriter]

Yes, the supervisor knows who to suspect, and has made it perfectly clear that absolutely nothing will be done about it. I'd let someone know that you witnessed an act of theft while you worked there, and while you obviously can't prove it's the same person, it's certainly suspicious.

 

[dawson5]

can you anonymously send an email or a letter? something that cannot be connected to you?

We had issues of vandalism over last weekend. The bus driver overheard the kids talking about it. She told me. I didn't want the information connected with either her or myself (she wants to keep the lines open with the kids and one of the kids doing this, their parents hate us so they would think we were out to get "him.") A neighbor of ours is the boss for the parent, her kids go to private school, we really can't be connected (age differences, schools, etc.). I let her know, told her to situation and how we really didn't want it connected to either of us and the reasons why. She told the mom, the mom was able to prevent more vandalism being done and learned a valuable lesson about her child in the process. He thought she was "stupid" and it was "easy to sneak out of my house because my mom doesn't pay attention." Thankful that we were able to prevent possible property damage in the neighborhood. There was a group of four that were getting maps of the neighborhood together, planning houses to "hit." They started with TP'ing, were quickly progressing to soaping and egging from the sounds of it.

(Just two months ago, our house and my neighbor's were egged. I was able to wash it off at 2am but didn't know about hers. She had to pay someone $270 to come and clean her house. She did not get all of it off of her front door, that needs to be stripped/sanded and repainted, not sure of that cost.)

If I didn't speak up, what would it have cost the homeowners. What if the children were caught and taken to the police?

 

[barkley]

the sup knows who to suspect but may not want to have to deal with it which is a lousy attitude but not unheard of.

we had theft incidents in our office that escalated from food items in the breakroom to purses being pilfered of credit cards (left the cash b/c it was less apt to be noticed). when the guilty woman was discovered it came out in the wash that her supervisor knew she had stickey fingers because of some issues reported to her by the person's co-workers but the sup had never done anything b/c she figured so long as the person was'nt stealing from the company it did'nt come under her job description to address it

the co-workers need to find out if this is something their employer addresses or if they have to involve police on their own. it was'nt until one of the people at my former office who had their credit cards stolen involved the police on their own that anything happened to stop the situation (and even then the employer did'nt do anything to the employee-claimed it was'nt a job performance issue, it was the police/courts that made her accountable).

if you are friendly with someone still there i think sharing your experience with that person is not out of line.

 

[Pakey]

I wouldn't say anything. If the employees know it's a problem, they should be protecting their property already. You were told not to say anything and I'd leave it at that.

 

[Arielle22]

You should not get involved. You have no idea if she is actually involved or if management is taking steps to handle the matter.

 

[smkiya]

I'm sorry but I'm very surprised by some of the responses here. It is difficult now for the OP to follow up because she is no longer employed with the company, BUT she should tell her friend. The original incident should have been pursued so that this employee could have been reprimanded. Theft is grounds for immediate termination in my world, especially when the suspect is caught redhanded. The supervisor should have gotten Human Resources involved. If he didn't then the OP should have reported it to Human Resources. This way, if the thief only got reprimanded, she would be put on notice and these current thefts may not be occuring. I doubt though that after the "investigation" that she would be allowed to stay anyway.

After having written this I think the best thing to do would be for the OP to speak with someone in Human Resources about the incident and let them decide if they want to pursue it. (Even if she's no longer there, she can still report it). She should tell her friend about it also, I'd want to know.

I worked in an office once about 15 years ago and had my purse on a chair in the back office. I had just cashed my paycheck and had the money in it. When I went to leave my purse was there, but no money. Since then I always use a locker! If a locker is not available I don't bring my purse or I lock it in my car, putting my license, credit cards, cash and keys in my pocket. You have to be proactive about protecting your assets. It may not be the original thief, but maybe someone knows of the previous incident and knows that if they get caught nothing will happen anyway.

 

[robinb]

Hmmm ... this is a tough one as I can see both sides.

I would say that if you are still friendly with some of your ex-coworkers (I assume you are since you are FB "friends") that you may want to share the k-cups story with the ones who are are missing things. Especially since this just happened to you last month.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

If there is a thief in their midst, why in the heck are they leaving stuff out to be stolen?

I mean really. It is not rocket science to kept your stuff away from a thief.

I would not get involved.

 

[bumbershoot]

smkiya, I am 100% with you! I'm shocked that some wouldn't say anything.

If I knew of a person that had previously stolen something (and she did, she just didn't get away with it), and then wasn't in that group of friends anymore, I'd try to make sure the friends knew about that past problem! Can you imagine if the coworkers ever find out that the OP knew and didn't tell?

At hubby's company, it is a fireable offense to steal anything, even a WW meal from the freezer. It was happening so often that they set up a webcam, hooked up to the boss's computer, to monitor the breakroom. Never happened again. They took it seriously. Hubby was very proactive in making sure they did something, as it was HIS meals and food and lunches that were being stolen...he has to control his blood sugar (and ONLY does it with diet and exercise) and when his lunches would disappear he'd have to go without (if we had run out of grocery money) which caused problems, or he'd have to go get something cheap and carb-y, which caused problems. He took it seriously, and so should this office.

I would tell my former coworkers, absolutely.

 

[onyx8]

If you decide to tell anyone, do it over the phone so that it cannot be traced back to in a paper/email trail.

 

[NatashaDisneyCM]

I would say something ..this is part of the problem with the world today, no one wants to get involved! And then I would have someone set her up! Why walk on egg shells when you know who it is! She may have a legit medical condition that causes her to do it, but you need to find out!

 

[bettymae1121]

It sounds like from your post you don't work for that company anymore? If you don't work there, I don't see any reason not to tell your former co-workers about the incident.

If you do stil work there, but just in another department, that's a bit more complicated. In your shoes I'd likely tell one or two trusted co-workers about it, with the understanding that you'll deny it if it gets out that you said anything. It's still a risk, but I don't think I'd feel right if I didn't at least make an attempt to warn people.

 

[smkiya]

Please don't flame me. I honestly would like to understand why some people don't think it's appropriate to speak up about the incident.

I would probably agree with some of you if it were only a matter of the OP put the K-cups down, left the room, Co-worker walks in and OP comes back, K-cups gone. Yes, suspicious, but not proven.

In this instance, the K-cups were found in co-workers bag. GOTCHA!!! Why she's still there I just don't get .

 

[Arielle22]

I was one of the posters who said to let it go. I do agree that I am suprised she was not written up over the prior incident.

However, what is going to be accomplished by telling the former coworkers of this issue? So the OP tells her former coworkers about the coffee theft. Are they going to confront her, shun her? That could lead to fights in the workplace and the coworkers OP is trying to help getting in trouble with management.

The coworkers should already be guarding their belongings since the thefts appear to be common knowledge. It is possible that if the coworkers focus on the one woman and she isn't the thief then they will let their guards down and more items will be stolen.

Also, no one knows how the management is handling the situation. It is possible that they are laying the groundwork to catch the thief. In my prior workplace, we had someone stealing small items from unlocked desks and food from the frig. He was also stealing large amounts of money from the company. Management took its time to make sure they had proof of the thefts then the person was perp walked out in handcuffs one night.

So those are my reasons for thinking she should not mention anything.

 

[smkiya]

I was one of the posters who said to let it go. I do agree that I am suprised she was not written up over the prior incident.

However, what is going to be accomplished by telling the former coworkers of this issue? So the OP tells her former coworkers about the coffee theft. Are they going to confront her, shun her? That could lead to fights in the workplace and the coworkers OP is trying to help getting in trouble with management.

The coworkers should already be guarding their belongings since the thefts appear to be common knowledge. It is possible that if the coworkers focus on the one woman and she isn't the thief then they will let their guards down and more items will be stolen.

Also, no one knows how the management is handling the situation. It is possible that they are laying the groundwork to catch the thief. In my prior workplace, we had someone stealing small items from unlocked desks and food from the frig. He was also stealing large amounts of money from the company. Management took its time to make sure they had proof of the thefts then the person was perp walked out in handcuffs one night.

So those are my reasons for thinking she should not mention anything.

Valid points! Thanks for the explanation.