Being a good roommate is not a terribly difficult task.
There are bound to be personality clashes from time to time, but as long as everyone cleans up after themselves, pays their share of the rent on time, and respects each other’s things, any living situation will likely be a harmonious one.
And yet, some people are still unable to follow those few, relatively simple regulations.
Including one of the Roommates of Redditor gottmilk_ who appeared to be partaking in his food without asking.
Finally having had enough of it, the original poster (OP) hatched a plant to put in action to catch his roommate in the act.
But wondering if their plan may have been too extreme, the OP took to the subReddit “Am I The A**hole” (AITA), where they asked fellow Redditors:
“AITA for switching to regular milk to prove my lactose intolerant roommate keeps stealing from me?”
The OP shared how he came up with one easy way to determine if his roommate was the reason his milk kept disappearing.
“Me and 2 other guys share an apartment together and we split all the bills.”
“The only thing we don’t split costs on is groceries.”
“Everyone’s in charge of buying their own food and we don’t touch whatever doesn’t belong to us in the fridge.”
“We put our names on everything so no one gets mixed up.”
“This issue has been going on almost a year, and I’m sick of it.”
“One of my roommates, R, keeps stealing my food.”
“I get home from work and containers with my leftovers are sometimes missing, they have my name written on them, or my stuff finishes too quick.”
“My gallon of milk for example.”
“I buy almond milk because I like the taste.”
“But it seems to finish after a week even though I’ve only drank once or twice.”
“I confronted R about this lots of times and that’s caused a lot of arguments.”
“He outright denies it and tells me I’m crazy, even though it’s so obvious.”
“My other roommate and I carpool together because we both work the same early morning shifts around the same area so I know it’s not him.”
“It’s always after we get back home and R’s already left for work that I notice my food’s gone.”
“My roommate’s also had a similar problem but not as often as I do.”
“I’m guessing cause R doesn’t like what he buys.”
“The funny thing is, R buys a lot for himself and is even more stingy about his food.”
“He will literally point out what’s his when he comes back from grocery shopping and tells us not to touch it.”
“Last week, my milk was nearly empty again and I got fed up.”
“I went to the liquor store and bought regular dairy milk.”
“I drank what was left of my almond milk and refilled the gallon with the one I bought.”
‘This was to catch/prove R is the one stealing since he’s lactose intolerant.”
“The next day, Saturday, we get back from work, and R is pissed.”
“He yelled at me that he was stuck in the bathroom for 40 mins with diarrhea because of my milk.”
“He was using it to make a shake.”
‘I only responded with ‘so then you’re the one who’s been stealing?'”
“He freaking exploded.”
“Yeah he admitted he was ‘sometimes’ drinking my milk and eating my food but he was madder that I switched milks than the fact that he was caught.”
“I told him I wouldn’t have done that if he’d just stopped taking my stuff from the fridge or at least told the truth instead of tryna make it seem like I was making it up.”
“My roommate backed me up and thought it was kinda funny he got payback for stealing from us.”
“It’s a little tense right now and my roommate told me R is trying to convince him to agree to kick me out.”
‘Little does he know we’re both looking to move somewhere else together cause we are sick of his sh*t.”
“I told some buddies what happened and a few think I was an a**hole for that.”
“I feel like I’m not in the wrong here.”
“He was taking my food and not even owning up to it and I wanted to prove it, does that make me TA?”
Fellow Redditor weighed in on where they believed the OP fell in this particular situation by declaring:
- NTA – Not The A**hole
- YTA – You’re The A**hole
- NAH – No A**holes Here
- ESH – Everyone Sucks Here
The Reddit community agreed that the OP was not the a**hole for swapping his milk as a means of catching his roommate.
Everyone thought the OP’s plan was the perfect trap, and R had no one to blame but himself for his allergic reaction from drinking milk that didn’t belong to him.
“NTA.”
“This, children, is called projection.”
“He knows he’s stealing food, and he figures the two of you are going to try and do it to him.”
“D*ck.”- FlownScepter
“NTA.”
“I read a story from askamanager where something similar occurred.”
“OP liked spicy food and the food thief ate it and then reported OP to HR for trying to poison him.”
“Eventually OP got fired after HR agreed with food thief.”
“OP got a lawyer and the story came out that HR and the food thief were in a relationship.”
“Company owner fired both offenders and hired OP back with increased pay.”
“Dude sucks for stealing your food and I would have done the same thing.”- ohemgeez223
“NTA.”
“As you said if R wasn’t stealing your food, he wouldn’t have had a problem.”- Jayney__
“NTA.”
“It’s your food.”
“You could have put your medicine in it or even your pet’s medication in it.”
“You could have put a laxative in it or even syrup of ipecac.”
‘And I would still say NTA.”
‘When people steal food, lie about it, and don’t replace it they reap what they sow.”
“Food is expensive, especially milk substitutes.”
“Without replacing the food he was essentially stealing money from your wallet.”- hcp56
“NTA there is a saying in Finnish that translates to ‘the greedy ones have a sh*tty end’, and I think that’s what happened here.”- annoyedpotatolady
‘NTA”
“If he steals from you, he should face consequences, especially after you bringing it up to him.”
“Why would he expect you buying and using products that accommodate to his health condition?”-Fabo__HD
“NTA,”
“He’s stealing from you and you taught him a lesson.”
“He’ll have the sh*ts, boo hoo.”- SucksATHalo
“Speaking as a lactose intolerant person: NTA.”
“Dude had to learn a lesson.”
“If drinking real milk would have killed him, or hospitalized him, then I’d say it was too far, and there should be a better way.”
“But having to sh*t for 40 minutes is a hilarious, and fair, punishment.”
“Well played, OP. Well played.”- Kamikaze_Bacon
“NTA keep doing it.”
“Drive him crazy.”
“Make him leave.”
“He’s an awful roommate.”
“I would have done that sooner once I suspected he was doing that.”- kolfman
“As someone with lactose intolerance, I can say that it can be more than a ‘smelly inconvenience’.”
“It’s really too bad your roommate took your stuff after all the effort you went through to stop him from stealing, I’m sure it ruined his day.”
“That being said, hopefully, it taught him his lesson, though it doesn’t seem to have.”
“NTA.”
“You had to catch the thief.”
“He played a stupid game and won a stupid prize.”- masterredmage
“NTA.”
“Had he not stolen your milk, then it wouldn’t have been a problem.”
“No one should think you’re TA.”- nickygirl19
“You gave him time to act like an adult and he kept stealing your milk.”
“He paid for it.”
“Maybe the roommates who can’t stand him should see if they can kick him out.”- Theresajanehall
“NTA.”
“Mostly.”
“My only quibble, if you don’t know the extent of his medical condition, doctoring with someone’s food allergies, even if they are being TA, isn’t a great thing to do.”
“I don’t think a serious lactose intolerance will kill someone, but I’m not a doctor.”
“You would hate to have to explain this to emergency personnel.”
“‘Yes, I know he had this food allergy, but he was being a jerk and I wanted to f*ck him over.'”
“This guy sounds like a jerk.”
“I hope he actually learns something from this and from his roommates leaving him.”- kenthedm
“NTA.”
“It’s perfect!”
“You caught him and punished him with one move.”- juabreudecastro
“NTA.”
“As my husband always says ‘play stupid games, win stupid prizes’.”
“Guy got what he deserved.”-morbidmoth42
Karma has a way of getting back to people. You certainly didn’t skim-p on that.
And the fact that the OP’s roommate actually got mad at him for switching milk is almost laughable, as it wasn’t his milk to be drinking in the first place.
One hopes that the OP and his other roommate are able to find a new place sooner rather than later, because they both deserve to live in a place where they don’t need to worry about their food getting stolen.