AITA for switching to regular milk to prove my lactose intolerant roommate keeps stealing from me?

A Reddit user describes a year-long struggle with a roommate, “R,” who frequently steals his food, despite clear boundaries and labeled containers in the shared fridge. The user decided to catch R in the act by replacing his almond milk with regular dairy milk, knowing R is lactose intolerant.

The plan worked; R ended up with an upset stomach and finally admitted to the theft. However, instead of apologizing, R was furious about the milk switch and is now attempting to get the user kicked out. While some friends think he took it too far, the user questions whether it was justified.Read the full story below for more details.

‘ AITA for switching to regular milk to prove my lactose intolerant roommate keeps stealing from me?’

Me and 2 other guys share an apartment together and we split all the bills. The only thing we don’t split costs on is groceries. Everyone’s in charge of buying their own food and we don’t touch whatever doesn’t belong to us in the fridge. We put our names on everything so no one gets mixed up.This issue has been going on almost a year and I’m sick of it.

One of my roommates, R, keeps stealing my food. I get home from work and containers with my leftovers are sometimes missing (they have my name written on it), or my stuff finishes too quick. My gallon of milk for example. I buy almond milk because I like the taste. But it seems to finish after a week even though I’ve only drank once or twice. I confronted R about this lots of times and that’s caused a lot of arguments. He outright denies it and tells me I’m crazy even though it’s so obvious.

My other roommate and I carpool together because we both work the same early morning shifts around the same area so I know it’s not him. It’s always after we get back home and R’s already left for work that I notice my food’s gone. My roommate’s also had a similar problem but not as often as I do. I’m guessing cause R doesn’t like what he buys.

The funny thing is R buys a lot for himself and is even more stingy about his food. He will literally point out what’s his when he comes back from grocery shopping and tells us not to touch it. Last week, my milk was nearly empty again and I got fed up. I went to the liquor store and bought regular dairy milk. I drank what was left of my almond milk and refilled the gallon with the one I bought. This was to catch/prove R is the one stealing since he’s lactose intolerant.

The nxt day, Saturday, we get back from work and R is pissed. He yelled at me that he was stuck in the bathroom for 40 mins with diarrhea because of my milk; he was using it to make a shake. I only responded with “So then you’re the one who’s been stealing?”

He freaking exploded. Yeah he admitted he was “sometimes” drinking my milk and eating my food but he was more mad that I switched milks than the fact that he was caught. I told him I wouldn’t have done that if he’d just stopped taking my stuff from the fridge or at least told the truth instead of tryna make it seem like I was making it up.My roommate backed me up and thought it was kinda funny he got payback for stealing from us.

It’s a little tense rn and my roommate told me R is trying to convince him to agree to kick me out. Little does he know we’re both looking to move somewhere else together cause we are sick of his s**t. I told some buddies what happened and a few think I was an a**hole for that. I feel like I’m not in the wrong here. He was taking my food and not even owning up to it and I wanted to prove it, does that make me TA?

Here’s what Redditors had to say:

Jayney__ −  NTA. As you said if R wasn’t stealing your food, he wouldn’t have had a problem.

hcp56 −  NTA. It’s your food. You could have put your medicine in it or even your pet’s medication in it. You could have put a laxative in it or even syrup of ipecac. And I would still say NTA. When people steal food, lie about it and don’t replace it they reap what they sow. Food is expensive, especially milk substitutes. Without replacing the food he was essentially stealing money from your wallet.

ohemgeez223 −  NTA. I read a story from askamanager where something similar occurred. OP liked spicy food and food t**ef ate it then reported OP to HR for trying to poison him. Eventually OP got fired after HR agreed with food t**ef. OP got a lawyer and story came out that HR and food t**ef were in a relationship. Company owner fired both offenders and hired OP back with increased pay. Dude sucks for stealing your food and I would have done the same thing.

FlownScepter −  NTA.The funny thing is R buys a lot for himself and is even more stingy about his food. He will literally point out what’s his when he comes back from grocery shopping and tells us not to touch it.
This, children, is called projection: he knows he’s stealing food, and he figures the two of you are going to try and do it to him.. D**k.

throwaway13168751 −  This story is incredible! Who can’t tell the difference between almond milk and dairy milk?

Fabo__HD −  NTA. If he steals from you, he should face consequences, especially after you bringing it up to him. Why would he expect you buying and using products that accomodate to his health condition?

annoyedpotatolady −  NTA there is a saying in Finnish that translates to ‘the greedy ones have a s**tty end’, and I think that’s what happened here.

Kamikaze_Bacon −  Speaking as a lactose intolerant person: NTA.. Dude had to learn a lesson.
If drinking real milk would have killed him, or hospitalised him, then I’d say it was too far, and there should be a better way. But having to s**t for 40 minutes is a hilarious, and fair, punishment.. Well played, OP. Well played.

morbidmoth42 −  NTA as my husband always says ” play stupid games, win stupid prizes” guy got what he deserved.

SucksATHalo −  NTA hes stealing from you and you taught him a lesson. He’ll have the shits boo hoo.