Man dumpster dives for food, his roomie steals eggs, ends up in hospital AITA? UPDATED.

People love to lie until the lie backfires, then they want to turn things around and play the victim.

In a popular post on the AITA subreddit, a man asked if he was wrong for leaving out gross eggs that got his housemate sick. He wrote:

"AITA for 'poisoning' housemate who ate my food without my permission and ended up in the ER?"

I (19m) recently moved into a shared place and there is someone who keeps stealing my food. At first, I thought it was just a mistake but even my leftovers were being eaten. It was very clear that the person was doing it on purpose.

I spoke to my housemates about how I would just prefer to be asked first but they were nonchalant about it and none of them admitted to doing it and I haven't caught anyone in the act so I just tried to ignore it as it only happened every couple of days or so. A few days ago I came home from work with a carton of eggs that I found while dumpster diving and some bread.

I wanted to give the eggs the water test first before eating them just to make sure that they are safe to consume but I was too tired and went to bed early without eating. The next day I found out that one of my housemates got so sick he ended up having to go to the emergency room.

My eggs were not in the fridge where I left them but I saw the carton and shells in the trash and my bread was opened. I had a hunch that it was him because there was a possibility that the eggs had gone bad but I was also annoyed at the fact that he helped himself to my food without asking.

When he came back, I asked him if he had eaten my eggs and bread but he denied. I then said okay but I hope whoever ate them doesn't get as sick as you did because I found the eggs in a dumpster. His face immediately dropped and he looked visibly uncomfortable.

He got angry and went from saying that he may have consumed the food by mistake as he wasn't paying attention and doesn't exactly remember and accusing me of poisoning him. He said that it's a health hazard to bring such food in communal spaces without warning everyone first as it's not uncommon for people in shared places to eat other people's food by mistake.

He hasn't spoken to me since then and my housemates are siding with him and called me disgusting for doing that. A part of me feels like I wasn't wrong because they were MY eggs that I was fully intending on eating and I didn't think I had to warn people against eating food that didn't belong to them but I also do feel bad and guilty that he got sick. So Reddit please tell me if I was in the wrong?

The internet had plenty to say.

DrAgnesL wrote:

I lived in dorms for 7 years with 9 different people all together. Nobody has ever eaten my food by mistake (or on purpose by the way) nor did I eat others. It's really not that hard to not eat what's not yours. NTA.

Vhagar37 wrote:

NTA. If the housemates prefer a communal food-sharing system, they had the opportunity to discuss this with you when you brought it up. They also could have asked you to label your food so they didn't accidentally mix things up, but it sounds like they didn't take that opportunity either. This sounds like karma to me ?‍♀️

And OP responded:

Right? No one mentioned sharing food at all and I also find it hard to believe that a person can accidentally eat food that he knows he did not purchase or leftovers that they know aren't theirs and didn't cook.

BeeYehWoo wrote:

Nope, you did nothing wrong. Your forgetful roommate is a piece of work. Once or twice I can see food going missing in a communal fridge. But chronically and with nobody fessing up is the work of a bull#$t artist feeding you lies and hoping that you restock the fridge so his stomach can be full.

Someone is lying to your face and eating your food. Who doesn't have the balls to admit their error and think you are dumb enough to believe their weak lame excuse. Full stop. Tell them you are insulted for this reason and your sick roommate got what was coming to him. He merely got to experience the occupational hazard of being a thief. NTA.

UnluckyCountry2784 wrote:

All of them are mad at you because they all eat/steal your food. NTA. I hope they learned their lesson.

OP responded:

A part of me feels that way too because no one else has complained about their food being constantly eaten. It sucks because they are always eating out or getting take aways but they still don't mind eating my food. I honestly don't mind sharing when I'm able to but right now I'm not in a position to.

DevelopmentPlus1748 wrote:

NTA - as much as it is petty, he lied, and he chose to eat your food even though it’s the biggest rule in shared housing to not do so. He f#$ked around and found out and probably won’t be doing that again.

OP jumped on with an update after receiving lots of comments of support.

EDIT: Just to clarify because I see comments that suggest that I may have done it on purpose, I didn't. I have been dumpster diving for some of my food recently so I was fully intending on eating it just like I have been eating the food that I have been finding while dumpster diving.

I try to exercise caution and thankfully it hasn't made me sick yet but had he not eaten it, I was probably going to end up in the ER myself because I was obviously going to eat it. I didn't randomly do it just to try bait and catch whoever has been eating my food. Food poisoning is not a joke.

As I said I just moved recently and I'm just trying to get on my feet. I also understand that although I make sure to wipe my food first, ultimately it is gross to put food that came from a dumpster in a communal fridge or pantry and will not continue to do so. I will just put it in my room from now on.

Clearly, OP is NTA, his roommate was being a major jerk.