Roommate complaints are familiar territory for many of us, but most of the time we’ll just grin and bear it.
After all, is it really worth arguing over a few minutes too many in the bathroom in the morning or leaving crumbs on the kitchen counter?
However, for one woman, frustration with her housemate reached boiling point after she suspected him of stealing her food, prompting her to devise a plan to “poison” the thief – to prove it was him, once and for all.
Posting in the ‘Am I the Jerk’ thread on Reddit, the 25-year-old, who we’ll refer to as Lizzie*, was ‘vilified’ and labeled a ‘psycho’ for taking such extreme measures, but she doesn’t seem to think she did So anything is wrong.
Lizzie was initially living alone in her apartment, but due to financial difficulties, she opened her home to a 27-year-old friend of a friend – we’ll call him Max*.
Max was “okay at first”; He didn’t smoke or do drugs and paid half the rent and utilities. But problems start to arise when Lizzie returns home after working night shifts to find that her food is missing.
“I even started naming everything I made after myself, but my food kept disappearing, which pissed me off,” she wrote.
The young woman explained that she confronted Max about it several times, but he denied it “repeatedly.”
Lizzie remembered cooking the ribs before work to reheat them when she got home, put her name on them, and texted Max telling him not to eat them with a picture of the container. However, the food was gone when she returned.
After weeks of dealing with a food thief, she said she “just broke up”, adding: “Nobody lives here but me and him, and he doesn’t have a lot of friends… I know for a fact he doesn’t have anyone to stay, so He was for him.
“Plus, I’ve caught him eating my food a few times, which shows he’s a sly pig.”
It was then that Lizzie decided that she was “going to mess with him”, and knowing that Max had a severe allergy to nuts, she went out of her way to buy some almond powder.
“I put it in my macaroni and cheese meal,” she said. “I gave this guy a chance at his life, and I told him not to eat it. I even made sure to say, ‘Hey, this macaroni and cheese is mine.’ “Don’t touch her.”
Lizzie sent him a photo of the container to be “more visible”, and set up a secret camera to record her unfolding plan.
When she returned home, she discovered that Max had eaten the entire batch and left the container on the table. Lizzie left the apartment, but received an angry phone call from his mother a few hours later, telling her that Max was in hospital due to an allergic reaction.
“She was screaming at me, accusing me of being a monster, and poisoning her son by feeding him nuts,” Lizzie wrote. “I told her this was food that was not meant for him, and sent her the proof. I asked her to read the messages I had sent him, which showed the container and reminded me not to eat it.
“His mother started scolding me for being ‘negligent’, asking me why I was getting something he couldn’t eat… She got angry and shouted on the phone that if he kept eating my food, I didn’t know what else I would do.” ‘He does.’
While Lizzie said she didn’t feel guilty at all, many on Reddit were either skeptical about whether she was telling the truth, or angry that she “deliberately put someone into anaphylactic shock.”
“What if this is a time when his allergies are responding in a greater way or he doesn’t have access to his adrenaline pen?” @Crazylush wrote. “You could have literally killed him. Putting someone into a state of anaphylaxis is absolutely absurd.”
Another said: “You’re an a**hole.” Attempted murder is bad, even when someone steals your macaroni and cheese.’
On the other hand, some felt that Max was at fault for not listening to the clear instructions Lizzie sent him, telling him not to eat her food.
But what does the lawyer say?
says Rachel Mason, criminal solicitor at Slater Heelis Solicitors subway That Lizzie could be punished under the Offenses Against the Person Act 1861.
“The fact that you poisoned your food makes no difference,” she explains, “the crime is committed because you realize that someone else is going to eat it.”
“She may be prosecuted for maliciously administering poison or noxious substance to endanger life or to inflict grievous bodily harm, wound, insult or annoy any other person.”
So, if this is true, is there a strong chance that Lizzie will put herself in a difficult situation?
“She will likely be prosecuted,” Rachel adds. I knew this was a trap and I set it up to catch him. She is unlikely to have a defense available and is at risk of being sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Basically, don’t take a leaf out of Lizzie’s book – revenge may be a dish best served cold, but this is sure to leave a bad taste in everyone’s mouths.
Do you have a story to share?
Contact us by email Me****************@Me***.uk.
More: A man films every seat he sat in during a 5,000-mile flight from Europe to Asia
More: This is how much the average home seller will make on their home in 2024
MORE: Up-and-coming London neighborhoods to move to in 2025
