Stealing stories: Follow the trail

We're always encouraging the stealing of ideas from other operations. It helps operators do their jobs better. However, everyone has a good story about customers who try the other kind of stealing—the bad kind. Since we love a good story, we are starting a new, fun monthly column on the Editors' Blog called Stealing Stories. We want to hear your funniest/most creative stories about a time when customers got crafty when trying to steal from your operation. To submit a story, email me at [email protected].

Today’s story comes from Tim Dietzler, director of dining services at Villanova University and current NACUFS president, who remembers when the guilty party literally left a trail for the police to find.

"The most unusual story I have regarding a theif occurred in one of our residence halls. One of our dining halls is sandwiched between dorm room levels. So we have students living above the kitchen and below. One night we inadvertently left a window ajar in the pot wash area. Some very alert students spied the open window and shimmied out onto the roof above the loading dock, making their way across to the open window. They climbed in the kitchen window and went to town enjoying leftovers from dinner, novelty ice cream and chocolate pudding. Then they decided to have some fun and dumped the flour bin on the floor and proceeded to track it all over the kitchen.

The next day we arrived to a sacked kitchen, so to speak. Flour was everywhere. Before we could call our Public Safety office, an officer arrived in the kitchen and told us they found the individuals involved in the break-in. We were amazed that they were able to solve this case so quickly. When asked how they found them so fast, they replied that they simply followed the trail of flour to a dorm room in the building. When they knocked on the door, the door swung open to two students sleeping in clothes caked and covered in flour!"