# kitchen thiefs



## petefromNY

There is always one, whether it be a chef coat or knife or product from the freezer. There is always one in the crowd. Its also really hard to point fingers when in a professional kitchen setting since its pretty much like your family or home away from home.

Last night after cleaning the josper oven i went to shut out the lights and grab my gear and go chill with the front of house staff for a few before i went home. We have a upstairs sort of manegerial office and stock room where we keep the towel and swag from the beer vendors and thats where we keep our things. I had my backpack with the usual chef crap and my VERY SMALL set of stones. (king 1 & 6k +naniwa 3k) watch,med kit. I go pick up my back pack and i notice its very light, i look and of course my stones and watch are gone. My back pack was zipped back up and placed exactly how i had put it there.

Now i know you guys are going to say you should have had it locked up or with you or whatever and i know this. Where i work we have not had a single employee turnover since it opened 2 years ago. No one has left no one has come. We have never had a issue like this ever. 

I know the mentioned stones are not amazing compared to most the stuff out there but these were mine and i worked hard and saved for a WHILE to even get a modest collection like that.

Well anyway back to what this was intended for. How do i go about handling this. We checked all the cameras and its shows every single chef to line cook going to server and so on up and getting their things. There is no camera in the actual room only leading from the dining room upstairs to the hallways. I honestly have no clue who would have done it and i have no leads. I feel calling people out would just create a harsh work environment. Also these people are like my family. Ultimately i know im just going to take a loss on it.

Have any of you ever had to deal with this? if so how and how did it turn out for you.


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## CutFingers

You look at the hands of the thief...Any matching mud stains on the finger tips...do you see any unusual cuts on the fingers of somebody who might have slipped when sharpening. 

Somebody stole your stuff. Talk to the head honcho. Let him know that somebody stole your stones. This person is likely hurting the business.


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## malexthekid

I think you need to do something about it. While I understand not wanting to go accusing everyone of it, there needs to be a way that it can be brought up and hopefully dealt with, otherwise it is likely the thief will now keep doing it.


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## 420layersofdank

Pm sent


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## Mrmnms

If you're sure they were borrowed, I post a notice somewhere obvious. "I'd appreciate if whoever accidentally took the wrong stones home with them would return mine" I may have a spare full size 1k King. When's your birthday?


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## Adrian

Good advice. No accusations at this stage - just ask for the "borrowed" gear to be left in the locker room as you are sharpening some friends knives this weekend.


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## petefromNY

i Left a notice up saying there will be no repercussions (i lied) if my property was returned to me. Now since ive been asking around and since the topic has been brought up people have been being more vigilent about their things and apparently more than just my things are missing or have been for quite some time. A fellow co workers santoku vanished a few months back as well. As of 2 days from now we will have lockers as well ! 

the one thing i just dont get is that i am the only sharpener.... i do everyones knives. No one is even willing to learn !

@mrmnms my bday is not till july lol I appreciate your offer and you in general. you were my first kkf friend ! some of the guys on here were willing to hook me up till i get back on my feet with it.

Again thank you all for your wisdom ! you guys will never know how much i really appreciate you !


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## Mrmnms

Any time Pete. Maybe I'll have something different for you to try if your back visiting. There's a lot of stand up guys here. That's one of things I like most about this forum.


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## petefromNY

@mrmnms Ill be there in july and i already have plans to bring you some NY strips from the shop !


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## larrybard

Uh oh. What are the odds that in July some shop in Lancaster will report that they're missing some NY strips? :justkidding:


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## petefromNY

Haha @larrybard no my dad owns a prime butcher shop on long Island.


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## Salty dog

Create an opportunity for an anonymous return.


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## Mrmnms

petefromNY said:


> Haha @larrybard no my dad owns a prime butcher shop on long Island.



They have great product, a few towns over from me.


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## lokbot

having thieves in house is the worst. It's been over 5 years since I've worked at a restaurant where you had to be vigilant about keeping your stuff locked up. I'd suggest have someone leave out a nice android phone with https://androidlost.appspot.com/ installed on it. when the phone goes missing and the thief tries to turn it on you'll get a nice clear selfie uploaded online.


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## designdog

Pete, you still without stones? I have a Bester 800, Naniwa green brick 2k, and Snow White 8k I can send you. Not using them, since I went to natural stones.

I am assuming you are on the East Coast and it won't kill me to ship them. Send me a PM if you are interested...


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## Bonertyme

I had an incident like this happen to me. I had an assumption of who it was but couldn't prove it. So what i usually do now is just try move on and try remember to secure lock on my bag. Very tedious but gotta do what you gotta do so I won't lose out Hundreds of dollars again.


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## Jordanp

Friggen kitchen thieves just today someone stole a knife I was going to ship right out of my bag in the change room makes my blood boil when this happens to me or anyone else. seriously some people......


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## CaremeFraiche

There's a special place in hell for kitchen thieves


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## mise_en_place

Pete,

You get your stones back? I think I have a King 1K/6K combo lying around somewhere.


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## Benuser

designdog said:


> Pete, you still without stones? I have a Bester 800, Naniwa green brick 2k, and Snow White 8k I can send you. Not using them, since I went to natural stones.
> 
> I am assuming you are on the East Coast and it won't kill me to ship them. Send me a PM if you are interested...


great!


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## BrianT

Kitchen thieving hasn't happened at my workplace yet, or at least not that I'm aware. Or likely case is the restaurant where I dish-wash is a smaller establishment, so everyone knows each other pretty well. Only about 6-8 people in the kitchen during service.


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## mlau

Wow! We have some really nice people here!


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