For reading material in our office bathroom I used to regularly bring in magazines from home. Once I was done reading my FHM and Wired magazines I would bring them in and put them on the shelf in the bathroom stall. Everyone would enjoy reading them and I continued to do this on a monthly basis. Soon one of my friends in the office started to bring in magazines as well. He'd bring in his MAXIM and Blender magazines.
We were distraught however, when last year the magazines started to disappear! I know what you are thinking, how could someone take magazines from the bathroom? The bathroom is like the graveyard for magazines. It is where they go to die. They are not to be removed from the bathroom and read anywhere else as they are now bathroom reading material and are contaminated. The only way they should come out of the bathroom is at the bottom of the trash bag. This is just how it is and everyone knows this. To do otherwise would be unholy, to say the least.
Well last year we noticed that the magazines were disappearing after a couple of days. It was just the FHM and MAXIM magazines though. We would bring them in and a couple of days later they would vanish. I checked with my boss, the president of our company, as I thought he might be throwing them away if he thought the material was inappropriate for office reading. This was not the case though. Someone was actually removing the magazines from the stall and taking them home.
Now this is offensive on two fronts: First of all the person is taking the magazines which are meant for everyone to read. Second of all the person is taking the magazines home and probably putting them on his coffee table. His guests are probably reading them without any idea of where they have been. They are being exposed to something that is utterly vile outside the confines of the bathroom and had they any knowledge of the whereabouts of the magazines they were reading, I'm sure they would re-consider their friendship with this person.
There were several months of speculation as to the identity of the culprit and numerous discussions among my friends at the office. We contemplated who would be dirty enough to do this deed. Unexpectedly one day, while I was washing my hands in the sink, the stall door opened and out came our VP with a magazine in his hand! I couldn't contain myself as I had caught him red-handed. I dried my hands and bolted out of there and proceeded to laugh my ass off. Now I know it was him who was stealing the magazines because you don't leave the stall with the magazine in hand. If you're in the middle of an article then you just sit there till you finish it. This guy just gave me a dumb look.
My colleagues were thrilled that I knew who was taking the mags. We decided it was OK to start bringing in the mags on a regular basis again since the guy knew that I knew he was the one taking them. Wrong, they continued to disappear and this time the same day they were brought in. What the hell!!!
We tried many different methods. We marked up the covers of the magazines. I left my name on the magazine. I left notes on them asking that they remain in the bathroom. Nothing worked.
So now we just don't bring in those mags anymore. What a shame. They provided for some good bathroom reading material.
It looks like there is only one thing to do. A confrontation with this guy requesting that he stop taking the magazines. Of course I will have to catch him in the bathroom as I can't just walk into his office and say this.
Doesn't that just piss you off though? The guy has got a blatant disregard for basic bathroom etiquette and for others property. Not to mention what he is exposing other people to by taking the magazine outside of the confines of the bathroom.
By the way my Wired magazines stay in the stall for months on end until I myself throw them in the garbage. T&A always wins.
