caught redhanded

Ever since I've stayed in Raffles Hall during the holidays my stuff in the communal fridge has been stolen with reckless abandon. In a block of at least 150 people there are only two fridges. And as I've come to realise, education level really has nothing to do with personal ethics. Labeling my stuff don't seem to work at all. I'm been wanting to catch the person/s taking stuff for some time. Sometimes it's really not the value of the stuff that's taken that matters. It might be something really small but what does it say of the person stealing it?

So this morning as I gone down to the communal kitchen to make myself some breakfast there was already a girl there cooking. Not a problem, there are two hotplates. As I was preparing my omelette I found the contents in her pot rather familiar. Say~ isn't that the same type of mushroom I put into my spaghetti yesterday? Nevermind, should be a coincidence. Then I went to the fridge and saw the girl taking MY shrooms from the fridge!!! What the?!!! Something really snapped then. As I confronted the person she seemed rather shocked, but quickly gained her composure,saying that she thought those were hers and that she bought the same type of mushrooms a few days ago. Quick wits eh? But I remembered specifically I've put it in a spot in the corner of the fridge that had nothing in it. And then I saw my pack of noodles taken out of the fridge and placed on the floor. Ok at this point I more or less know for sure whether she's guilty because normally if you owns something you would take it out all at one go and not take some first and then go back to take somemore as a afterthought. Basically I think she's adding whatever she can find in the fridge, which explains the noodles she's taking as well.

There's nothing much for me to do but to ask her to go to the hall office with me and let the resident manager settle everything. The resident manager told me that things get taken all the time and heard our case. I thought that the girl's mannerism was rather rude and didn't seem apologetic at all. I didn't hear her apoligise to me even once(in my opinion even if she really mistook my stuff for hers she should apologise), but all she did was defend herself. The resident manager really couldn't think of a better way to handle it and asked me to give her the benefit of the doubt and I did. The girl then asked the resident manager in a sharp tone what do you mean benefit of the doubt, seeming to think that's going to be bad for her...lol...she needs some serious tutoring for english. The resident manager then had to explain to her what it meant. And so the whole show ended with both our names and rooms recorded under my suggestion. I think at least this way she won't dare to take stuff ever again, at least not in the near future.

You might be thinking why go through all this trouble for a few stupid mushrooms? Honestly it's not the mushrooms that matter, it's the lack of respect of other people's belongings that pisses me off the most. Hopefully this would be the end of my long list of stuff stolen. Or perhaps I really should get myself a fridge.