<p>What do you do when you suspect your roommate stealing stuff from you...and how do you catch him?</p>
<p>Make absolutely sure he is. Use a webcam or something discreet and leave a 10 dollar bill lying around or something</p>
<p>He mostly steals water bottles and candy bars from INSIDE my drawers and closets!</p>
<p>maybe it wasn't him and you misplaced the items</p>
<p>If you want to be sure someone is going in your drawers, use a method straight out of a James Bond novel: take one strand of hair and close it partially in the drawer so you can still see it without opening the drawer but would fall out if the drawer was opened. When you get back, see if it has fallen out or not. This won't prove your roommate for sure, but it will tell you when your drawer is opened.</p>
<p>Assuming your room has a freezer...</p>
<ol>
<li>Buy some ice cream</li>
<li>Let it thaw a little and mix in some mineral oil or Xlax</li>
<li>Put it back</li>
</ol>
<p>If he has any sanity he will never touch your stuff again.</p>
<p>Just talk to him. He might not think anything of it, people come from all types of backgrounds. Just be like, "hey have you seen my water bottle." He'll probably admit it, and just ask him politely to not do it anymore.</p>
<p>What slipper1234 sounds reasonable and you should probably follow that advice. But give some thought to what calkidd said because that sounds fun!</p>
<p>If it's just candybars or something similar, talk to your roommie. As someone stated, people come from different types of homes, and what you consider stealing, your roommie might consider to be sharing. If you speak up, if your roomie is taking your stuff, the roomie may stop. Speaking up also would be a much nicer way to handle things than the Ex-Lax solution, which sounds mean.</p>
<p>What you are describing is also a minor problem. When I taught college, one of my students had a roomie who stole her credit cards and ran up bills. The student had to turn her roomie into the police, and the roommate was charged with a felony. Now, that was a very difficult situation. The roomie clearly was a sociopath and a criminal. Feel fortunate that your situation is not at all like this.</p>
<p>My ex roommate did the same thing to me...she actually opened up my food drawer while i was out out the room, she goofed though because I counted what I had left and saw the drawer open when I returned. Luckily I recently switched into a single, but if I havent I would have talked to my RA and to the hall director. Talking to your roommate may work, but only if you are still on speaking terms and never had a fight before.</p>
<p>"Luckily I recently switched into a single, but if I havent I would have talked to my RA and to the hall director. "</p>
<p>Before taking those drastic steps, it would have been wise to have talked to your roomate about your concerns. One only should go to higher ups if one has tried to solve the problem first by talking directly with the person involved. </p>
<p>Skipping over that step can lead to lots of hostility and hurt feelings. Often these kinds of situations are easily solved through a low key conversation with the person involved.</p>
<p>If the items are not big ticket, but more nuisance, I would just ask the roommate, if he is borrowing. If he is, just let him know, that he needs to ask cuz you were put in a bind when you were counting on something being there when you needed it. No big deal. If he denies knowing anything about it, then warn him that you have been missing these items and that both of you are going to have to be careful about who is in the room and the door being locked because of this poaching, and that you are going to mention this to the RA. The RA should then be asked to tell the dorm to take some precautions because there is a thief about. That usually ends the problem as the issue is now out in the open and it is being labled a theft. Some kids just are very careless with their own and other's belongings and may not have considered it in that light, and if the roommate admitted "borrowing' the items, that could easily be cleared up.</p>
<p>In my case, there were many other issues in the room so switching to the single was the only way to get away from the other issues, we were literally to the point of being unable to share the 10x15 space. The stealing was the LAST of the issues to appear.</p>
<p>Web cam. ;)</p>
<p>Keep your food drawer closed. Before leaving, leave a not on top of the food saying something like "DON'T STEAL MY FOOD!" </p>
<p>If it's not him, he'll never see it. If it is, that should be sufficient both to let him know that he's been found out, and probably to stop his fingers from wandering to your drawer next time he gets hungry.</p>
<p>Haha...I tried that. I put a post it note on top of my crate of water bottles in my closet that said "(his name), stop going through my stuff," and I think he still went through it!</p>
<p>defintely web cam, but make sure to cover the little light with a book or something.</p>
<p>Seems that since the other things you tried didn't work, what you need to do is to lock up things you don't want stolen.</p>
<p>I think it's pretty drastic to lock up such items like candy bars. I think the best thing you could do is talk to him and explain that such and such is your property and you'd appreciate if he asked before he touched it.</p>
<p>i agree with what people have been saying about talking to your roomie first. Candy bars and water bottles are not a big deal.</p>