Hey all...

I just had to throw this one out there after reading the entry that hester shared with us about her co-worker stealing her yummy peanut butter.  Well, it just so happens that I too have had the misfortune of having a lunch grabber in my midst and this is a little ditty about how we took care of the vermin.  I understand that sometimes there are honest mistakes made.  Case in point...Hester and Mr. Easter...same brand...same place...sounds like a good old honest mistake...could have happened to anyone.  Yet, when you bring in your lunch and it is a box, bag or container like no other, well then, someone has deliberately searched inside your meal for something of their desire is just plain wrong.  Oh, but there are ways to deal with someone like that...oh, there are ways.  Bwahahahaha.

Several years ago while living and working in the lovely state of North Carolina, myself and several of my co-workers where perplexed as to why portions, if not all, of our lunches would disappear during the day.  What could be the cause for this conundrum?  Was there a black hole in the fridge that only became active when the door was closed?  Perhaps a lost civilization living in the lunch room would raid the fridge on hunting parties while you were out on the work room floor?  All posibilities, but not likely.  No, the true identity of the cause of this terrible situation was never really discovered, but it was delt with anyway.  There would be no more opening the fridge to discover that all, or some of your lunch was missing.  What was even worse was to find half of an eaten sandwich in it's baggie, or part of your left over's missing while the other half still remained in it's dish.  What is wrong with this world?

After a rather lengthy period of these shenanigans we pulled together and decided that a trap must be set.  Only then would the snack sneaker be put into his place.  Something had to be done...before anyone else lost their beloved turkey on wheat (with a slice of dill pickle on the side and a pudding pack to follow) or any other lunch item of their choosing.

For about a week we would go to the local Subway to get a nice sandwich for our bait.  Nothing too expensive though, since we knew that we probably would not get to eat it ourselves.  Everyday we would put our fresh worm on the hook...knowing that it was going to get nibbled on if not devoured.  Just like clock work...lunch goes in, go to work, head for lunch, remove empty Subway bag from fridge.  The plan was working without a hitch. So, after about a week or so of this baiting, we set the trap for our rat.

If you have ever worked in, or been around any school, industrial plant, office space, so-on-and-so-forth...well, you have probably seen those closets where the custodians keep all of their supplies.  These closets keep everything from paper towels to brooms and cleaning supplies.  Usually one item that we can find in these closets is a deep sink...one that a mop bucket can be filled up in.  Well, it seems that on most counts these mop buckets are also emptied in these sinks too.  This is were our sandwich would find it's secret ingredients for our friends next lunch.  Mmm-mmmmm!  If you look down in the bottom of these sinks, as well as most sinks, there is a drain trap that prevents large items from going down the drain and causing possible clogs.  The screens that are on top of the traps catches most of these items so you can retrieve them without any real effort, but sometimes not all of the goodies go down the drain.

We, grabbed the needed tools to remove the screen from this deep sink and remove our bootie.  A dark slimy mixture of mop yarns, grit and muck.  A feast for a king!  We took are new secret ingredients and carefully added them to our fresh Subway sandwich.  Ensuring that they would be neatly tucked away to add to the flavor of the yummy deli sub we carefully wrapped the sandwich back into the paper and bag and place it in the fridge the same way as the previous days.  Oh boy....can't wait for lunch today!

When lunch time finally came, we could only hope.

The last time we had a problem with anyone taking our lunches was that day.  Seems we found a foot long sub in the lunch room with a couple of big bites taken from it.  Seems he must have lost his appetite once he got to chew on some of that rancid mop string for a few minutes.  

Golly, I sure am hungry...what's for lunch?

I hope that everyone has a super-de-duper day!