Welcome To The Jungle

More often than I'm comfortable with, I leave my office only to return to someone lounging around my desk, talking on my telephone, "borrowing" my scissors, or rifling through my stuff. Once someone had even closed and locked all the doors to my office while they were in there so they could have some privacy while using my phone. I'm not sure what it is that makes people feel as though they can just wander in and take/do whatever they feel like. I know for sure that they would never do that in, say, the main office. One, because the secretary would kick their ass so hard, and two, because it's someone else's space. Would you just wander into someone else's house and start flipping through their magazines? Probably not, unless you're crazy and feel the urge to be arrested.

In fact, I'm fairly certain that none of these people would walk into another classroom and just take things, either. Even the most laissez-faire of teachers would find it rude if someone just stopped in every now and then to steal their belongings. So what is it about the library that makes my co-workers feel as though they're entitled to everything I have? If it were just the kids that were doing this I could understand a bit better- I mean, it would still be bizarre and unacceptable, but at least they can blame it on being dumb kids who feel like everything in the world should be theirs. These are grown adults I'm talking about here, and I'm sick of finding jammed staplers, empty paper bins, and one lone, broken-tipped #2 pencil in my pencil holder every time I come back from peeing.

Any suggestions for theft deterrents would be greatly appreciated. Especially ones that inflict bodily harm on the next person to misplace my memory card reader.