I stole a lot of food when I was a store manager for a fast food restaurant chain.

I managed a fast-food restaurant in my early 20's (I'm 41 now). The company's training policy was to promote from within, so I had worked my way up from a crew member position as a teen.<br><br>I always had something going on with my managers about me taking food. They would call me at home and tell me that the night manager saw that I had taken something out with me when I left the shift. I always said that I was taking it home for the crew the next day or some bullshit, but I was really taking it home for myself. The night manager was always supposed to count all of the food at closing time and write down how many of everything was in the freezer or the fridge or on the dry storage shelves. Then they would fax that list to the next day's manager who would recount everything. The difference was what I had ordered for the day.<br><br>The training was very hands off with crew members, so as long as they were doing their job, I left them alone. And if I happened to make them a cheeseburger during their lunch, then that was just part of their benefits for working there. I made food for the crew all of the time and kept it all on the clock. I never told them that I was giving it to them for free. I would just tell them that I made a mistake and it was going to get thrown away so they might as well eat it. They never felt like they had to repay me, but they also never told anyone that I was giving away food. So, I could have given them a burger or I could have taken it out with me when I left and no one would ever know.<br><br>We sold ice cream cones for $1 and sundaes for $1.50. The only difference was the sundae had a pump of chocolate syrup on it. When I managed the restaurant, I ate at least 5 sundaes a day. I would eat a sundae and then go back and eat another sundae and then have a third. The crew started calling me the $1.50 man. I would eat that many sundaes every day. And I gained a lot of weight when I was the manager.<br><br>I had a fridge in my office and I always kept alcohol in it. I would drink all day at work and then take some home with me when I left. I would eat hamburgers and sundaes and then drink liquor all day while I was at work. I was a functioning alcoholic. The oil in the deep fryers had to be changed every few months because it would go bad. So, we would drain the bad oil into 55-gallon drums and call a recycling company to come and pick it up. One time, I kept the oil at the restaurant for months while I siphoned it a gallon at a time into jugs that I took to a recycling center and got paid for it. I made over $1,000 recycling old fryer oil. But I didn't tell the owners that I was doing it. I just kept the money.<br><br>So, this all went on for two years until I got in trouble for taking $10 worth of food out of the restaurant. I ordered burgers and fries for the crew one morning and then took the food home with me when I left that night after my shift was over. When I got to work the next morning, my boss was waiting in the lobby for me. I don't know how they figured it out, because the crew always covered for me whenever I took food, but they caught me and I got fired.<br><br>Edit: this is not exactly what I would call "stealing". I could order as many hamburgers as I wanted and no one would ever say anything. I just had to pay for them or give them away. So, I was ordering the food and then taking it home without paying for it or giving it away.