At university how can you prevent people from stealing your stuff?

Following on from this thread I took great interest in reading:
http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=2034814&page=3

How would you go about preventing other students in your accommodation (mainly halls) from taking your stuff e.g. kitchen stuff without your permission?
Would you have to be like a hawk and watch over your stuff so it doesn't get stolen?! :wink:

Just wondering, any ideas?

OP

Any suggestions?

There isn't much you can do, to be honest, apart from keep things in your room. Or hope your accommodation provides locks for cupboards. If you see someone using your stuff confront them immediately and tell them to wash it. I'm not sure what your residential tutor can really do in these cases, but if it's really bad, they might be able to help.

There's always the passive-aggressive note approach, but that rarely works in my experience.

(edited 11 years ago)

Reply 3

Origami Bullets

19

IME there are very rarely problems with people stealing stuff in halls.

With regards to food, you can keep it in a cool bag (one each for fridge and freezer) that has a zip with two pulls, and put a padlock through the zippulls. I found that to be a very effective technique when I was backpacking, but in halls you run the risk of being seen as paranoid / untrusting.

Non-perishable food can be kept in your room, or you could use the above / similar arrangement.

People who use your stuff and don't wash it up tend to be the biggest problem. However, I have found that a spot of forensic crime scene investigation often identifies the culprit - if you have one person who's particularly keen on a certain type of food and you can see it's on there, then it was probably them, and you can ask them to wash it up :wink:

Reply 4

noma5

Original post by Bettypratchit

Following on from this thread I took great interest in reading:
http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=2034814&page=3

How would you go about preventing other students in your accommodation (mainly halls) from taking your stuff e.g. kitchen stuff without your permission?
Would you have to be like a hawk and watch over your stuff so it doesn't get stolen?! :wink:

Just wondering, any ideas?

In terms of cutlery, use it, wash it and put it in your room.

Reply 5

et cetera

10

With regards to the milk - if you taint it with green food dye, your 'housemates' will think its 'off' and avoid it like the plague - yet I can still drink it. :biggrin:

get hench

cum on the food and just let them steal it.

Reply 8

james22

16

They can't steal your stuff if they're dead.

Just sayin

Reply 9

.Scout.

14

There isn't much you can do I'm afraid.

If you see someone using your stuff, just tell them to wash it up and return it to your cupboard. But apart from keeping your things in your room, there isn't much you can really do.

The people that leave passive aggressive notes and lable their food unfortunatley seem to become more of a target.

Reply 10

soempty

3

If you know people are stealing put some nasty chemical on your staff which you know is going to be taken (not deadly one obviously).

Reply 11

Nesselphie

Keep all your kitchen equipment in your room and take it to and from the kitchen in a box/bag when you need it. Your room will probably be fairly close to the kitchen!

Keep anything that doesn't need to be frozen/refrigerated in your room as well.

As for the rest, just write your name on anything, and keep things in carrier bags, people seem to avoid wanting to go through bags in the fridge in favour of picking something not in a bag. :smile:

Reply 12

1992dean

Original post by Origami Bullets

IME there are very rarely problems with people stealing stuff in halls.

With regards to food, you can keep it in a cool bag (one each for fridge and freezer) that has a zip with two pulls, and put a padlock through the zippulls. I found that to be a very effective technique when I was backpacking, but in halls you run the risk of being seen as paranoid / untrusting.

Non-perishable food can be kept in your room, or you could use the above / similar arrangement.

People who use your stuff and don't wash it up tend to be the biggest problem. However, I have found that a spot of forensic crime scene investigation often identifies the culprit - if you have one person who's particularly keen on a certain type of food and you can see it's on there, then it was probably them, and you can ask them to wash it up :wink:

Helpful thanks

OP
i havent thought of people stealing as everyone is in the same boat and wants to get along

Just keep an eye on your stuff and people around you

Reply 13

cl_steele

2

rig the room with a claymore?

Reply 14

Soph.Jade

15

Keep food in tupper ware with your name written on it, write your initials on as many things as possible, take some asda value cutlery as "communal" so people can use that without using your nice things :smile:

Reply 15

StacFace

18

I'm not at uni yet but will be moving into halls in September. My plan is to get my kitchen stuff as cheaply as possible first of all to minimise the loss if it happens. At first I'll leave it in there and hopefully my flatmates will be mature enough to use their own stuff or at least ask if they want to use something of mine. If things work out that way then great.

If stuff starts going missing then I'll try to talk to everyone as a whole and just generally say I don't want my stuff being used without asking/my food taken etc. If it continues I'll then move my stuff into my room, or the stuff they keep taking if it's specific things they seem to be going for.

Reply 16

InketyDink

My sister tells me that when she got sick of people taking her food without permission she casually threw in to conversation something along the lines of "Oh, do you know where the rest of the cake went? No? Ah, just I was going to throw it out because I'd seen something crawling all over it but had to rush out before I had the chance, I hope no-one ate it.". It seemed to stop after that!

Reply 17

SillyEddy

18

My sister's flat mate was tired of someone taking his beer out the fridge - So he took a half-empty one and topped it up with wee.

Nobody messed with that guy's stuff ever again.

Reply 18

hevlar.kelmet

2

Original post by SillyEddy

My sister's flat mate was tired of someone taking his beer out the fridge - So he took a half-empty one and topped it up with wee.

Nobody messed with that guy's stuff ever again.

Giving a new definition to getting pissed....