A third of Brits have had their belongings stolen at work

The office is a playground for kleptomaniacs, but the depth of colleague thievery has been revealed in a survey that shows a third of employees have had their lunch and other belongings stolen at work.

The research conducted by security expert ADT reveals that 31% of respondents have had their favourite mug taken from them, while 29% reported cases of missing lunch items. Of those, 16% had been the victim of theft in the last week. That number grows to half of employees in the last month.

Aside from hurt feelings, respondents said losing their belongings to a thief had serious consequences; 4% feared buying nice things for their desk, 10% had trust issues with colleagues and 19% claimed theft had caused huge arguments.

Rather typical of British stoicism, a fifth of those affected by a lunch thief said they choose not to do anything about it, while one in 10 give the offending colleague the cold shoulder and 5% leave a passive-aggressive or strongly worded note.

In a minor win for womankind, the survey also found that the majority of office thieves are men and tend to be serial offenders.

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