holy crap. but the woman had balls, you gotta give her that. lack of the chocolate can put a serious little devil on both shoulders...

Oh, the candy dish stories we can tell!

I had a lady who used to come in to our accounting firm and acutally PICK UP the candy dish and dump the entire thing into her purse! We finally just started sticking it under the counter when we saw her coming.

At the restaurant I worked at years ago, even the employees were not allowed into those delicious chocolates without paying. We got them for half price, though! The boss charged us 2 1/2 cents for each one she figured we ate.

By the way, I am totally excited to be coming to Seattle this weekend. I will be keeping an eye out for those crazies I keep reading about on your site!

When I first discovered your blog, I read through much of your archives. After going through them, I believe that people would do just about anything! "Common courtesy" just really isn't that common.
Thanks for sharing all of your stories -- I love reading them.

Wow. That's quite despicable. It just gives me the icks when someone totally knows what is good proper etiquette, knows what is wrong, but clearly does something for their own selfish interests (obvious by her looking around and reaction to you). But instead of getting depressed about this one person, I like to think that it's really nice that everyone -else- at the restaurant seems to have a brain and not do crap like that.

Wow - people like her are the reason we have to chlorinate swimming pools. Good thing you have an eye for people coming and going - your employees and customers should feel safe with you around!

It's the ones that know it's wrong that make your blood boil...the ones who don't get it just make for fun "what will she do next" games.

Sometimes people like that need to be dealt with.

My sister and I had a cafe in Melbourne a few years back and one day a woman walking by finished her apple and dropped her core on the footpath right outside our cafe. My sister had had enough of the crazies inside the cafe for one day and she snapped, firstly in a polite kind of way.

"Excuse me, but you just dropped your apple core."

The woman shrugged her shoulders as if to say "big deal!" and kept on walking.

My sister's response was far from classy but very appropriate.

"PIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIG!!!!!!!!!"

dude, you have free chocolate in your restaurant? I'm there...
just kidding. perhaps she is a regular and feels entitled? PMS? I dunno...

Obviously we aren't talking those Andes mints here!! =) Or maybe we are, and the lady was in desperate need of a fix...

There's a lot to be said for some special chocolates laced with a ton of sorbitol for a special someone.

Ah, but the unsung part of the story is the Client. Clearly that woman is a keeper, trick for her as often as you can!

OMG, Dave's comment about chlorinating the swimming pool because of people like the chocolate thief is hilarious. One bad apple spoils the whole bunch.

And speaking of apples, I think Sticky's sister is my new hero. Nothing like whacking people with their own trash.

Finally, Deb TOTALLY hit the nail on the head with the sorbitol-laced candy. A nice dish of chocolate ex-lax would work, too. As long as it wasn't given to any unsuspecting PAYING customers it would be a delightful retaliation.

Not to be too picky, but chlorine kills algae. And let me tell you exactly what kind of swamp can develop in a pool of unchlorinated water.

Nevertheless, the client is a keeper and the chocolate thief has no integrity.

Our City Attorney has the habit of raiding refrigerators in various departments, not to mention walking into people's "cubes" and taking food they have their for their pleasure/need!

We still aren't sure, though, if he was the culprit who took a bite out of someone's refrigerated sandwich AND THEN PUT IT BACK IN THE REFRIGERATOR!

We finally set up a "jungle telegraph" to let people know he was on "our" floor (his office is on another) so food could be secured.