12 Items Commonly Taken by Customers from Restaurants

Ten bucks at any restaurant supply store will get you a dozen ramekins, so what’s so special about the ones from the diner? Maybe it’s the thrill of the crime or just plain self-indulgence, but swindling customers can’t seem to help themselves from bringing home more than leftovers.

Restaurant patrons are willing to pull an “Ocean’s Eleven” all for a measly bottle of ketchup, and it seems to be a universal habit. If you think your grandma’s little thieving tendencies are unique, you are greatly mistaken. From carafes to decorative taxidermy lynxes, customers are snatching things that aren’t on the menu, like the menu itself. Not even the bathroom soap is safe.

While some of these petty thefts may be accidental, like walking off with a pen, many are bold and impressively calculated. One bartender reported losing every last spoon in their bar overnight thanks to a college scavenger hunt. Another server once chased a customer all the way down the block to rescue their restaurant’s prized six-foot marlin. Aside from life size mascots and eloquently hand-painted pottery, most restaurant tableware can be purchased at your local department store, but when slipped from your favorite restaurant, it becomes a sentimental treasure and the punchline of your favorite party anecdote.

Drinkware is one of the first things to disappear from restaurants, as it’s already in the customer’s hand. Anything from wine glasses to thick diner style coffee mugs will regularly leave with restaurant patrons, especially if it’s a unique shape or branded and can serve as a prime keepsake. Last call at the bar is a stomping ground for barware theft, which is likely half intentional and half an alcohol-induced oversight. Some regulars even pull the long con, beelining it out the door with a pint glass every few months, and have been able to furnish their entire drinkware cabinet. Regardless, cool glassware and mugs should be chained and locked to the table.

Folks love a nostalgic themed restaurant for the festive atmosphere, and sometimes they have such a good time that they need a souvenir to commemorate that moment. It seems that the wackier the decor, the more often it goes missing. Life size fish is just one of many coveted novelty decorations. Diners have been caught swiping neon signs bigger than their heads, stuffed alligators, fine art, 180 pound rock effigies, and even the “employees must wash their hands” sign right off the bathroom wall.

Condiments don’t come cheap, and when servers drop an entire bottle right on the table with the meal, sneaky customers can’t resist snatching it. Many restaurants are known for their original spices, sometimes even with secret recipes, and some customers are willing to risk an embarrassing moment all for a bottle. A hijacked bottle of Red Robin seasoning once spiced up one Redditor’s entire family’s dinners for a month. It’s more understandable when it’s a restaurant’s signature sauce or seasoning blend, but sometimes, diners will pocket a basic bottle of ketchup or something as trivial as a sugar packet.

As one of the smaller items at the table, silverware is often shuffled into pockets and purses right before customers scurry out the door. If it’s particularly ornate or decorative, chances are, it will disappear before the next shift. But, apparently, plastic silverware isn’t even impervious to theft. Fast food workers have been forced to hide all of the utensils because customers (as in more than one) have poured the entire container of spoons into their bags.

Between their apron and ponytail, servers will stash as many pens as possible, knowing full well that more than half will vanish before the end of their shift. It’s often the accidental souvenir for customers in a rush out the door, but there’s also those who actively pocket pens after signing their check. “Restaurants get it the worst. Every few months, I have to empty out the pen graveyard,” one person admitted on Reddit.

Some restaurants set their tables with beautifully crafted salt and pepper grinders, while others safeguard their pepper mills while offering fresh cracked pepper tableside. Regardless of size or beauty, apparently, pepper grinders get stolen from restaurants quite often. One Redditor wrote that pepper grinders would “go missing on a weekly basis” at their restaurant, and an entire case of them ended up getting lifted.

Ramekins are another common restaurant contraband. For one, they’re cute and small. They’re not the most utilized dish in household kitchens, as we don’t have to order dressing on the side in our own house, which means many home kitchens are lacking this adorable little dish. Second (and likely the most relevant reason for their vulnerability), they’re often holding tasty sauce that we want to bring home with our leftovers.

Either folks don’t want to bother their server for a to-go ramekin to salvage one tiny scoop of sauce, or they just adore the little ramekin and want it to join their collection. One Redditor reportedly dated a ramekin addict, who had a “cupboard full of ramekins,” none of which he paid for.

It’s clear that anything small is attractive for restaurant looters, and small creamers and pour bottles are tempting targets. Busy brunch establishments are often flush with receptacles for creams, syrups, and juices at the start of the day, but by the end of the shift, dozens are missing. Establishments tried to solve the stolen creamer issue with single-serving packaged creamers, but folks just steal those too. People will head into delis and grab creamers by the handful without even ordering any coffee. Customers won’t let size stop them from the pitcher of their dreams either — they’ll try to steal glass juice pitchers and water carafes – sometimes successfully, sometimes not.

The bathroom is an excellent reflection of a restaurant’s standard of service; the more ply the toilet paper, the finer the restaurant. But the bathroom luxuries don’t stop there. Nice restaurants often have fancy soap to match the elegant aesthetic, and they smell too good for customers to leave behind. A few hand washes isn’t enough for some patrons, and they’ll stuff the whole bottle right into their bags. Some rowdy customers have even ripped soap dispensers from the walls. A few restaurants have resorted to nailing their high-end hand soap and lotions to the wall in response.

Even with practically all menus being accessible online, they walk out the door with customers fairly often. Sometimes, it’s just a simple printout, but other times, it’s a leather-bound work of art that cost the restaurant a pretty penny. Given the menu items are available to the public, there’s no fear of recipe espionage, so chances are, menu theft is more about sentimentality. Some diners might simply want a memento, and others may see a DIY project in the making.

For fast moving restaurants, table caddies are a life (and feet) saver. Rather than running back and forth from the kitchen to the dining room, zig zagging between tables, servers will fill little caddies with all the usual requests and put them at each table. The handled buckets can typically hold all the classic condiments, salt and pepper, napkins, and sometimes even some jelly. Despite their hefty size and the extra work of emptying all the condiments out onto the table, customers love to take these table caddies home. They’ll ditch the jellies, and just make off with the caddy.

Cloth napkins probably don’t spend much time out of the drawer at home, so when dining at a fancy restaurant, the silky soft napkins are a lovely touch. A little too lovely to abandon, apparently. Customers love to tuck away cloth napkins and fancy linens after they finish their meal.