I wonder if that would end up being illegal. I know that if you're aware that someone is eating/drinking your stuff, you can't put anything in it that might harm them, including laxatives or excessively hot spices (people have sued and won for that). But breast milk shouldn't be harmful.
define excessive? I love hot stuff to the point that my lunch could be considered a war crime most days and I'm not gonna tone it down because some scum fuck might want to steal it.
As I understand it, if someone sues you because they ate your food and got sick or injured because it was too hot, you're probably going to be fine if you can show that you routinely eat food that hot, and there's no evidence that you did it as a trap. My understanding is that, even if you eat food that spicy, if you tell someone "Someone's been stealing my food - they're going to get a big surprise when they find out how spicy it is today," you might have an issue. I'm not a lawyer, but workplace food stealing and resulting traps are apparently fairly common.
I’ve seen stories about this. If it’s so hot it makes someone else ill, but you can eat it, you’re fine. If you maliciously make it too hot for anyone, that’s apparently unacceptable.
Not sure, but OSHA will have a problem with an imporerly labeled container.
Edit, thinking about it. You probably would have a solid case - especially if there are damages. Some else said it's like putting sprem in food, but I think blood would be a better comparison [citation defintaly needed].
The theif could simply be allergic to something in her milk that's not in the creamer.
If the woman, unknowingly or not, had any sickness that can spread via breast milk, her leaving that in the creamer container where anyone could drink it is very bad.
It could spread from the "theif" to their spouce, who spreads it to the mail man.
Don't leave breast milk in a unlabeled container, public fridge or not.
The theif could simply be allergic to something in her milk that's not in the creamer.
So... hypothetically... I make my own lunch and bring it to work. It has peanuts. And perhaps some flu virus I'm carrying. You steal it and eat it. You get sick.
And... I'm* somehow responsible?
It's unreasonable to think you can steal things out of open containers and expect "proper labeling".
Right, again, I'm curious about the legality. You don't want to drink it, but if you drank someone else's drink from the work fridge and then found out it had pee in it, could you claim damage/injury?
In terms of blood-borne viruses (like HIV and hepatitis), breast milk is considered in the same risk category as semen or vaginal secretions, only blood is higher.
Whereas piss and shit are only considered a risk if they contain blood.
Obviously there's other reasons why you don't want shit in your food, but it probably won't give you anything really nasty and long-lasting.
Piss it's pretty much totally safe, but I reckon you could still get in trouble for secretly feeding it to someone.
Why the fuck is everyone in here acting like fucking breast milk is akin to laxatives or "harmful substances" and that it was put in there to harm someone? Young mothers at work often need to pump their milk so
a) someone can give their baby at home said milk the next day in a bottle
b) the milk production doesn't decline.
I hope you all know that.
So that could just be the container she chose to store her milk in throughout the day. Besides… breast milk is not fucking harmful. Where the fuck have you lot been educated?
Maybe you should learn to read before you get all enraged. I specifically said that, though I know things like laxatives are illegal this way, I wonder if breast milk would be. Also, though certainly mothers pump and store breast milk at work, this clearly isn't that because she added the "surprise" note as a "got ya" thing.
As sometime else said, what would your feelings be if it was a guy putting seamen into it? That's not harmful, either.
Pretty sure that you get the benefit of the doubt if you had a feasible reason for adding/changing something about your food.
For example, you could add a laxative to your food/drink and be totally in the clear as long as you labelled your container with your name and maintain that you've been constipated. It's a totally valid reason, plus it was labelled with your name so there's no reason for anyone else to be consuming it.
That argument has been tried, but if you knew other people were stealing your food, you can still be liable.
And in this case, it would be a stretch for the person to say they like putting their own breast milk in their coffee, and the note makes it clear that it was done intentionally to upset the perpetrator.
I would think it would depend on if this was labelled as hers. It's a totally reasonable assumption a giant bottle of creamer in a common fridge is for common use unless specified otherwise
It turns out that's not sufficient, legally (at least in the US). If you know someone is stealing your food, and you put something harmful in it, it doesn't matter of it was clearly labeled as yours.