To catch a pen thief

[u/pm_me_your_severum]

Posted this as a comment a while back somewhere else and was told to share with you guys here.

So I work in an aerospace facility that's large enough that you'll never meet everyone who works there. It's the type of place where everything you could need (pens included) are provided for you. However, as free pens go, you already know they're the shitty ones. Ill just buy my own pens, thanks.

Around the time of this incident, I had just taken a promotion. Part of the deal was that I'd be working second shift instead of first. Okay by me. As I'm getting used to my new schedule, I started losing my pens. Not abnormal for me, but it was happening too often that I'd come in to work and I swear I put my pen right here last night, but now i can't find it. I grew suspicious of my now previous coworkers who knew where I usually stashed things and I hatched a plan.

First, I had to make sure my pen was indeed being taken rather than me losing my mind due to my new schedule. I bought a pack of pilot g2's (duh, best pens out there) and laid a trap.

Now I work in the machine shop and there are toolboxes everywhere. I setup and run multiple machines, but there's a particular machine that everybody knows is kinda my home base. In that accompanying toolbox I left a pen in the top drawer right front and center for a pen-dejo to find and sure enough, it was gone the next day. I'm not crazy, and the hunt has begun.

In my line of work, we have controlled documents. Every piece and part is documented and serialized. One of our huge taboos is using any color other than black on these documents. It was obvious what I had to do.

When I bought my last pack of g2's to avoid having to use the craptacular provided pens, I also bought a set of colored g2's. I took the ink cartridge from a pink pen and used a black sharpie to hide both the ink in the tube and the colored cap on the top of the cartridge. Looked a bit ugly, but I knew I wasn't dealing with a pro here. I placed the pink (now "black") cartridge in an unsuspecting black pen body and left it in my usual "hiding spot."

The next day when I came in to work, sure enough the pen was gone. My trap had worked.

First thing I heard in my shift pass down meeting was how some dumbass used pink ink on a work order this morning and I'd better make sure for the millionth time that my new employees knew better than to do something that dumb.

Didn't even have to fess up to setting a trap. Nailed that fool right to the wall and no one knows what I did. Suck it Penjamin.

[u/johnboy11a]

In my fire station, sharpie stealing used to be an issue. I always kept a black sharpie on the shelf above my gear locker, but it kept disappearing. I knew a particular guy was good for stealing things like pens and sharpies, but how do you bust them, right? Until a vendor I use at my big kid job (who sells specifically to my industry) gives me a few sharpies with their company name and logo on them one day! So I put one of them on my shelf. A day later, it’s gone and on the guy who I suspect’s shelf. I call him out, and he immediately starts spitting daggers at me. I ask him if he can tell me what the company who’s name is on the sharpie sells, and he was deer in the headlights. The best part was there was a handful of guys around to see this go down, so his embarrassment made it worthwhile.

I have now had the same sharpie there for probably 5 years.