Those 5 little words "can I have it instead?" could have prevented him from getting fired.

Agreed. YDI OP because you did steal it. Just asking something as simple as, "Hey since it's going to get thrown out could I take it instead?" Would have let you keep your job.

"I didn't steal it, i just forgot to throw it out." problem solved.

YLIF, Jean Valjean.

#48, you just made my morning that much better.

I instantly thought Jean Valjean. Life is mirroring art at this point, isn't it?

YDI. Good thing you did not get a Bank Teller job.

I don't understand how it's stealing. It was going to be thrown away and never used by anyone else ever again. I mean if you want something, and the owner says they don't want it anymore, how is it stealing if you take it?

Oh, you watched that too?

The corporation would have said no, and then started surveillancing him more. This is how business works. They will not give their garbage away, and he may have been fired for asking.

#115 - Not all of work in nazi germany...

Its considered stealing because in many cases employees will make extra food if they are allowed to take the leftovers home.

Thank you 129. That and they report thrown out food as loss, similar to missing inventory. They have insurance against loss because of that. So it's cheating insurance to eat it. At my old job, they'd let us take the hot dogs when they weren't eaten by close. Despite what one person said, it's HIGHLY unlikely that they would have fired him for asking, just said no.

It's so dumb, 129... No, I mean, that people can't be trustworthy to not cheat like that. It's sad.

OH MY GOD I LOVE YOU for this!

# 129 - This sounds like the job I had at a Panera. We threw the bread out at the end of the night, because the company won't sell "day old bread". But when I worked there, employees could take any bread home that they were willing to, as the bakers worked night shift, and always made regulation amounts, and there was always extra. The manager tried to get homeless shelters to come pick up the bread, but it was in a pretty high rent area, with few homeless shelters, so it didn't happen often.

A church I went to a few times used to get giant bags full of bread from Panera. I'm not actually sure if it was bread made especially for them or if it was bread that was supposed to be sold and couldn't be, but considering it usually didn't taste completely fresh, I would guess it was their left-over, unsold bread. It was perfectly edible, though. I guess it's different when it's an employee. @#186: No, it doesn't. The trash cans within a restaurant/store/other place of work, and whatever is inside them, are still property of that place. Plus, most, if not all, dumpsters outside of a business are owned by the county, which makes it still illegal to take things out of them. My boyfriend worked at a Big Lots near a giant indoor/outdoor flea market, and for months they worked to catch a man who would visit their dumpster early in the morning, take things out that had been thrown away, and then go to his booth at the flea market and sell them. Eventually, once they had photographic proof, he was arrested for stealing. So tell me in whose book everything in a trash receptacle is "public domain." That man is proof of the reason WHY that's not the case, because there is a reason Big Lots throws out their things, the most common reason being that they are broken or defective in a way that makes them unsafe to use. Therefore, the man who was selling their "public domain" trash was selling things to people who did not know where it came from and might have been in danger from using the things they bought from him.

This kinda sounds like Cobs Bread.. maybe it's just in Canada but idk.

YDI. I worked at the Belgian version of McDonalds for a while and accidentally made a wrong milkshake. There were no customers, and we usually throw stuff like that away, but I thought about having it secretly. Then I asked the manager anyway. No, I could not have it unless I put it on my lunch card. Since I already ate, I threw it away. And they apparently have camera's to check on us xD So just ask. You had a job and you screwed it up for a bit of bread.

Doesn't matter if it was going to be thrown out. He was told to throw it out and instead took it without their permission. That is stealing. He didn't pay for it

This is not how most places work. He should have asked, especially after they TOLD him to throw it away.

true, i think it's a health and safety type thing.

#8 it's not complete BS. The store you worked at didn't mind if you did that at the end of the day. The place the OP worked did, it's the owners choice, not yours to make. If the bagel place said you couldn't take them would you have? If you say yes, you wouldn't keep that job long because you're stealing, just like the OP.

Many food service places (especially bakeries) donate the end of day food to charities. As such, it is a charitable contribution the business is rightly entitled to declare to the IRS. An IRS Audit (if ever), could potentially result in a Federal Charge of Fraud. I know it's extreme... and cannot fathom it happening over a bagel... but reputable companies have a zero-tolerance for such things. Such IRS charges are filed every single day. Perhaps you should try one of the charities that may pickup your former employer's left overs.

maybe it's a common computer, like in a computer lab at his college?