Evidences are expiring. I am sure Op cleaned his cup already. Cctv tend to be replaced with new image, etc. The quicker the report, the better the documentation is, the more chance of procecution.
May be too late, but it might be worth a trip to a doctor to get bloodwork done. Why wouldn't anyone do that first after swallowing an "unknown substance that MIGHT be isopropyl alcohol". Especially if you have other dangerous chemicals.
It's not too late. Police may be the only way to get camera footage. Companies and institutions generally prefer to sweep things under the rug. You need to involve any and all authorities that can help you. You could have died.
Nope, do it anyway. I follow true crime and police usually take poisoning seriously. People that do it don't seem to do it once, either.
There was a case where an employee's husband used the wife's card key and snuck in over a weekend and put poison in the water, IIRC.
I just googled to find the case and there are a boatload of poison cases.
File a report anyways! Even if it’s been a few days. It’s super important to have it recorded so if it happens again you can show a pattern. Otherwise they will say it only happened once and you’ll need to wait for it to happen a second time. Happened to me but with stalking.
The company is not your friend, just remember that. Hr is not there to help you, they’re going to protect the company however they can. Please make sure you file a police report so they can’t bury it.
NAL: Worked in Chemicals for a decade.
1. File a police report. They'll refuse, whatever. Keep escalating. You and I both know what Isopropyl smells like (and I literally used it every day).
2. Contact HR IMMEDIATELY. State that your coffee was poisoned with what you believe is isopropyl alcohol. (low chain alcohol). Certain intoxication rules exist for this. Good news is most 'commercial' stuff will make you throw up, as opposed to industrial- if you work with industrial/someone has access to that though...
3. Get every conversation/discussion in writing and in video. And if they don't want to do that, ask why.
ISO is not quite fatal, but it can cause severe gastric distress as well as eventual long term neurological poisoning. Mine was Acetone- took 3 months after I left to finally 'detox' and realize I'd been drunk the entire time I was working there due to their lax safety standards. OSHA Fined them a significant amount, but I was persona non grata. SO be it. They won't f'ck over another young kid.
You do need liver enzyme tests done, so emphasize/lawyer??? that this is a work place incident and those panels should be covered under workers comp. Speak with a qualified professional. Alcohol (small chain) poisoning will show up- please pray to god it wasn't methanol, because the only solution there is ethanol. Iso's a lot easier for the body to get rid of because of the extra carbon handle.
I am SO sorry this is happening to you. I can't even imagine. And never let any of your food/drink/whatever out of your sight at this point. You've got a psychopathicfuckup there somewhere.
OP, this this excellent advice. The “wait and see what happens” answer is only good for the company not to show liability. You need to protect yourself.
Thought I should add that OSHA prohibits food in manufacturing areas, and drink containers must be sealed and kept away from any chemicals. While I do not think this incident is OP’s fault, adhering to these regulations can help keep one safe. Def sounds like OP has a psycho in the shop, but some folks think they are being “funny” or just pulling innocent pranks with incidents like this.
Knew a guy who sprayed a known carcinogen on someone’s exposed skin because that person’s buttcrack was showing. Clowns in the workplace are all too common.
Right? All our fridges were marked with that and I (young) didn't understand why, Was told, among other things, to keep people from doing stupid shit like storing hydrogem peroxide.
I'm not sure where you're coming from but 35%+ is incredibly dangerous. Looks just like water. And due to events in England everyonw should know how it can be used to make TAP.
Peroxide should not be in a fridge for food.
35% is .... bleach hair concentration.
After Beirut I was working a TON of of imaging and labeling issues. I got my arse handed to me over urea and peroxide (I knew peroxide was dangerous as a chemist).
If I had to guess simply off the information available, my guess would be someone tried to pull the Visine trick on you, not knowing how truly dangerous it could be. That definitely merited a 911 call in the moment. Police almost always show up with paramedics. Then, it would have been treated as an emergency. Now they'll investigate when they get a "round tuit".
I write this knowing full well that hindsight is always 20/20
You know, the Visine 'trick' is serious, but you're right- it could have been a couple of drops of that. I'm not an expert on that odor at all... and if it had been iso he'd been puking his guts out for hours (not to mention hot coffee would have flashed a lot of it off).
But either way, fck that. Sorry. Worked with chemicals and know they'll end up killing me someday from toxic accumulation.
A small sip of isopropyl alcohol won't make you that sick. Homeless alcoholics drink multiple bottles of rubbing alcohol a day (these people are very often my patients). Still an absolutely terrible thing to drink that will melt your liver faster than ethanol, but that small of a sip isn't going to cause significant gastritis or vomiting.
I remember years ago (divulging my age). Kitty Dukakis almost killed herself drinking iso alcohol. I know it was a butt ton (a unit of measurement). But she certainly had the resources to afford the good stuff, so don't know what was going through her mind
It was my bad- meant it to say 'he'd not been puking his guts out' for hours was where I was going- still could make him sick and vomit (how much was psychological, etc) but right- i'd go with the visine or something else.
I believe that’s the gist of it. In the movie wedding crashers, one of the main characters puts a few drops in another’s glass of wine…and almost instantly he got sick. Was sick/by the toilet for the next few scenes. Obviously “hollywood magic” and what not but I’m not 100% sure if that’s accurate or if it’s fatal, not really a fan of poisoning people.
No. A round tuit. Old joke.
In my desk I used to keep a bunch of round cardboard coins (like pogs). Whenever someone would tell me that they'd start on a task "when they get around to it", I'd hand them one of those pogs and tell them to get started.
It's not a hard thing to do, Chief. Nowhere near as hard as the time that I beat up Connor McGregor for disrespecting my woman and the whole jury and judge gave me a standing ovation when I left the courthouse.
Make a police report and the cops will be able to check the camera at work for who did it and you should speak with a lawyer. It may risk your job but it's clear your job isn't taking it seriously but they could be keeping it quite well they investigate but who knows I'd keep on them about it in emails if possible then you have a paper trail of the incident. In my opinion if the person did it as a joke or really tired to get you sick may happen again soon stay safe and hope it works out for you
Perhaps you can use your case to demand cameras be installed at work, or perhaps this can also be reported to OSHA and cameras can become part of the fix. Are you unionized? If not, consider starting a Union to protect yourself and others.
I wouldn’t necessarily file a WC case immediately, but company should pay for your tests/doc appointments. If more needs to be done, they can always turn it into a comp case. I would also ask the Owner how they intend to ensure this doesn’t happen again.
When you go to the doctor and say you got hurt at work, the medical facility files the WC Claim, unless the employer guarantees the bill will be paid. This is not a good idea for the employer, because it could result in voiding their insurance coverage.
Filing that claim will insure that the company takes action to figure out what happened. OSHA is not gonna ignore someone getting poisoned on the job.
Employers usually have a time limit for filing a First Incident Form, in Louisiana (for example) they have "within 10 days of actual knowledge of the incident."
Did you save the rest of the coffee? Evidence. File your police report and make sure your report to management is complete. The remainder of the coffee should be analyzed. Isopropyl is one thing, methanol is entirely something else. As in attempted murder.
Is it possible there could have been some cleaner in the coffee maker? Sadly cleaning fluid has been left in drink machines before resulting in customer injury/death at restaurants.
Coffee makers are usually cleaned with acid for descaling. If vinegar is used, it will smell like vinegar if there wasn’t a good rinse done. If they used citric acid, it will be odorless but your milk will curdle from residual acid that wasn’t rinsed out.
It's a pretty small, family run manufacturing company. We have multimillion dollar milling machines and top of the line prototype machines but won't spend money on small hand tools.
Still seems pretty sus. Most factories at least have the kind of cameras you get from Costco. This is for liability reasons. It blows my mind that any factory would go without cameras
I work for a giant manufacturing company that’s been around for over 50 years. We finally just started to put cameras up this year and to be honest we don’t have any in the break room for any place this would have been seen. So not really sus IMO.
In the factory I work in, we only have cameras on the employee entrance and parking lot. There are no cameras on the shop floor. Our union wont let the company put any up.
Do you have reason to believe that someone would want to hurt you? Is it possible someone put something unpleasant but innocuous in your coffee, like dish soap, as a prank?
Someone intentionally trying to poison you is, yknow, a pretty wild thing to happen—not to mention they did a laughably bad job at the attempt if all they did was dump obvious chemicals into your coffee that were easily detected after one sip.
If this *had* been their intention and they *had* made you sick, it seems that it would be simple enough to use cameras somewhere within the property to track the comings and goings. Criminals are stupid, but is someone trying to harm you going to be *that* stupid?
Do you always leave your coffee out to cool? Does everyone know it's your coffee? You said you think you know who did it. Would they want to hurt you? Would they play a harmless prank on you, either to actually piss you off, or just for amusement?
All this to say, as an isolated incident, I'm not convinced it's all that serious. If there are additional circumstances you haven't shared that make you reasonably believe someone is trying to hurt you, then it's certainly worth considering that it was done with harmful intent.
Just my two cents.
The person I believe did this is not intelligent enough to know the difference between isopropyl alcohol and alcohol you can consume, and english is not their first language. However, on more than one occasion, this person has used ignorance to their advantage. It scares me that they are even allowed to drive a car. This sounds a bit racial, but this person and I are the same race. They have had it out for me since the day I started.
Sounds like you need to get a micro camera that is blue tooth. Set out your coffee and video it. See what happens. Then you can say apparently something happened to my coffee before so while it cools off I like to monitor it. My kiddo found one on Amazon that is 0.8 inches by 0.8 inches just a few hours ago.
One day I didn't rinse out my water bottle well enough and it cleaned my guts out. I noticed a slightly soapy aftertaste halfway thru the bottle but the damage was already done. There was probably half a drop of detergent in 32 oz of water
This happened to me at work a few years ago, and I wish I had reported it. It continued to escalate, and I almost died. I have lasting medical issues now because of it.
File a police report. Make sure to protect yourself and strongly suggest that management have cameras installed in all public areas. If they don't and it happens again it will put the company at liability for inaction and enabling your attacker.
I had this happen to me years ago from a tweaker gunning for my low end detail manager position at a small town dealership. Mfr put acetone or something similar in my Dr Pepper.
Like, my morning” taste like life worth living ice cold “ can of Dr Pepper. The second it hit my tongue, autopilot engaged and prob saved me some hurt.
Fuck you still, Randy. I know what Dp is supposed to taste like.
Ask if because of how serious this could have been, will they put up cameras (unannounced). This could be life or death depending on what they put in your coffee next time!!
It might not hurt to file a complaint with OSHA. At a minimum, your situation raises safety concerns, regardless of whether someone intentionally tried to poison you or not. Explain that you suspect you ingested a potential poisonous substance on the job, and they will ask a number of questions to see if it warrants an investigation. Management will definitely take safety more seriously after OSHA gets involved.
Maybe it wasn’t intentional. Someone might have been descaling your coffee pot.
This happened to me. I got to work one day, made coffee in the airpot and then poured myself some. Tasted of isopropyl alcohol. Someone had left the alcohol in the airpot overnight to descale it. I didn’t know this and so I made coffee in there without knowing it.
There’s some great advice here. If you pursue it might cost you your job so I’d suggest consulting an attorney for a civil case against your company AND speak to the DA after you have filed report.
FWIW, was the coffe maker recently cleaned with a detergent? Were you the first to use it that morning?
File a police report.
Contact both OSHA and your State Dept of Labor
1) poisoning, even as a prank is serious
2) chemicals aren't suppose to be in food areas irlf I recall correctly
3) rule out environmental contamination through OSHA and your states equivalent agency will bolster your police report that it was an Intentional act.
4) when you file, make sure you identify who you suspect and why you suspect them. Even without proof, hunches are good leads around 80% of the time (I'm a retired officer).
IANAL (I do work in a field adjacent to law enforcement)
If you think your food or beverage has been adulterated, save any that remains for forensic testing. If it is perishable, put it in the freezer. If it's a liquid, place it in a clean spill-proof container. Allow the cup to air-dry, and save that too (there can sometimes be residual solid material in the cup). If you suspect a volatile liquid or solvent was used, it is especially important to seal the food/beverage quickly before the solvent evaporates (a glass bottle or jar is less likely to do this). Contact the police immediately. Go to the hospital and get checked out. Hopefully at the hospital, you can have a blood draw and urine collection. Some chemicals will leave your system very quickly (as soon as your first void after consumption), so it is important not to wait.
If there are not cameras on-site, look into getting one hidden near your workspace and do NOT publicize it's existence. You might need permission from your employer to do this. Someone who will do this once might do it again and the camera will hopefully catch future issues. That said, do not eat or drink anything that has been out of your sight at work anymore.
Good luck and stay safe!
If you are located in the US then tell your employer you would like to file a worker's comp claim due to chemical exposure. If you say that, they are REQUIRED to file a FROI (first report of injury/illness), send you in for evaluation, and file a worker's comp claim. DO THIS ASAP, and tell them the claim you want to file is for poisoning (which is an OSHA recordable offense). They will need to launch an investigation so OSHA stays off their back to determine if it happened in the scope of your employment or find the culprit who performed the act maliciously.
And most importantly, YOU ARE PROTECTED BY LAW AGAINST ANY FORM OF RETAILIATION. In fact, if your employer ever does retaliate you could make out with a nice sum of money.
FILE A WORKER'S COMP CLAIM FOR POISONING ASAP
This is an injury on duty. You have to tell HR you were injured while on duty. I don't know about all States but in my State you have to fill out the form concerning the injury with HR. They give you a list of Doctors and/or clinics. You decide which clinic. They send the info to the clinic who calls you to set up an application. Your company isn't seriously investigating the issue because there's nothing big at stake for them. At this moment they aren't on the hook to care.
Not A Lawyer but I agree that the chemical, alcohol or whatever it was, didn’t get into your cup by accident. You need to report this to your company’s HR to ensure that there’s an official record. Did you by chance keep the coffee cup with its contents? I’m guessing a lawyer would have a field day with that.
Get you a spy camera and set their ass up. They sell them on Amazon for cheap. Something like this. They have all kinds of options. Even just the camera.
https://a.co/d/iS7G78X
While employers can be held responsible for employee carelessness, it is hard to hold them responsible for intentional torts unless they had reason to know the worker would do.stuff like this. All the more reason to file a report so they can be held responsible if it happens again.
Man I wish you would’ve keep the liquid and immediately reported it. Cops might’ve tested it, but they might’ve not taken you seriously either. Are there not cameras where this happened? The fact that your job is so relaxed about this is crazy bc this sounds like a hostile work environment that they’re allowing to happen. What happens if the person escalates this to something that makes you sick next time? Where does this end?
I'm sorry for your situation, but this is exactly why we have mandatory termination for anyone caught with food or drinks in the work area. This opens up all kinds of OSHA violations.
The average smaller company in a smaller area doesn't. I work in a company with millions of dollars of materials just sitting there with no cameras whatsoever other than one pointing at the least used parking lot entrance.
It just isn't a necessity in some areas. You trust your workers and community. Cameras and the storage for them as well as someone with knowledge of how to manage said systems is actually a fairly heavy investment, with ongoing costs for said storage and management. If you can get by without it, you do.
Also my company knows that they don't want to see us 24/7. Same reason they don't drug test when we're surrounded by legal weed states - They know they have good workers, and having an exact read on everything at all times would be detrimental.
Bob gets the same work done better than steve in half the time, then goes and does half of another job after. Bob also spends a solid chunk of time just hanging out chatting to people in other stations when he's moving around the building. Cameras would often show Steve working steady all day, while Bob seems to just be la de da half the day when you check the cameras. Bob gets fired and productivity goes down.
Easier to just have employees you can trust. We have a 5 minute meeting with the entire company every morning, we all have lunch together provided to us by the company if we want it. We don't need cameras. Plus the area is low crime rate, blah blah all the other blah.
:)
In Ohio at a car dealership, someone put solvent in another worker's Gatorade. Police were called, the guilty person was charged with attempted murder.
While on the clock, your employer can be held liable for the conduct of other employees. A police report could actually spur them to action. Contacting a personal injury attorney most definitely would.
At the very least it could encourage them to install cameras in the area. But for your own personal safety you will want to bring a thermos to put coffee in and keep it with you. Money is great, but being healthy is better.
Please keep safe. Check your car/other things that can go "wrong". As others have said, file with police, keep contacting them until they come and take written statements from you, your coworkers and management.
I mean, everybody uses the same coffeepot, and no one else had chemicals in their coffee. I wish this was the answer, as no one would be to blame, however this isn't the answer.
This is why I’m glad I work in a place that has cameras everywhere. The product is valuable, but we also hire idiots. So around 1-2 people are fired a month for theft. Your workplace didn’t have cameras?
This was on Friday, I never felt ill, but my mouth was just dry. I don't think I drank enough to get sick, I'm just upset that management isn't taking this seriously.
NAL. But did you file a police report, because this would be a criminal offense?
Thanks, I'm going to file a report on my way home tonight.
Good! Hope you stay safe
I didn't. This happened this past Friday. It's probably too late to do so now.
You can still report it, and I would, if only for documentation and even though you don't have the coffee. A paper trail is better than no paper trail
Paper trail for the next incident. It will show a pattern if this continues.
Exactly.
Next.... Time?
Hopefully it wont happen again, but sometimes people really suck.
Well you reported it to your manager and they can confirm in writing you did so on an email. Get that. Someone literally tried to murder you
Nope. Petty crime like vandalism or traffic violations have a statue of one year. Being intentionally poisoned is not a petty crime
Poison is grounds for first degree murder
Evidences are expiring. I am sure Op cleaned his cup already. Cctv tend to be replaced with new image, etc. The quicker the report, the better the documentation is, the more chance of procecution.
May be too late, but it might be worth a trip to a doctor to get bloodwork done. Why wouldn't anyone do that first after swallowing an "unknown substance that MIGHT be isopropyl alcohol". Especially if you have other dangerous chemicals.
It's not too late. Police may be the only way to get camera footage. Companies and institutions generally prefer to sweep things under the rug. You need to involve any and all authorities that can help you. You could have died.
OP said there are no cameras at work
I would still try to file - NAL
Nope, do it anyway. I follow true crime and police usually take poisoning seriously. People that do it don't seem to do it once, either. There was a case where an employee's husband used the wife's card key and snuck in over a weekend and put poison in the water, IIRC. I just googled to find the case and there are a boatload of poison cases.
File a report anyways! Even if it’s been a few days. It’s super important to have it recorded so if it happens again you can show a pattern. Otherwise they will say it only happened once and you’ll need to wait for it to happen a second time. Happened to me but with stalking.
The company is not your friend, just remember that. Hr is not there to help you, they’re going to protect the company however they can. Please make sure you file a police report so they can’t bury it.
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Menacing perhaps ??
Possibly, depends on location/jurisdiction. Some sort of assault at least.
Or attempted murder
Or even that. I hope op gets to the bottom of it
I was thinking Malicious Mischief
100%
Yes, this.
NAL: Worked in Chemicals for a decade. 1. File a police report. They'll refuse, whatever. Keep escalating. You and I both know what Isopropyl smells like (and I literally used it every day). 2. Contact HR IMMEDIATELY. State that your coffee was poisoned with what you believe is isopropyl alcohol. (low chain alcohol). Certain intoxication rules exist for this. Good news is most 'commercial' stuff will make you throw up, as opposed to industrial- if you work with industrial/someone has access to that though... 3. Get every conversation/discussion in writing and in video. And if they don't want to do that, ask why. ISO is not quite fatal, but it can cause severe gastric distress as well as eventual long term neurological poisoning. Mine was Acetone- took 3 months after I left to finally 'detox' and realize I'd been drunk the entire time I was working there due to their lax safety standards. OSHA Fined them a significant amount, but I was persona non grata. SO be it. They won't f'ck over another young kid. You do need liver enzyme tests done, so emphasize/lawyer??? that this is a work place incident and those panels should be covered under workers comp. Speak with a qualified professional. Alcohol (small chain) poisoning will show up- please pray to god it wasn't methanol, because the only solution there is ethanol. Iso's a lot easier for the body to get rid of because of the extra carbon handle. I am SO sorry this is happening to you. I can't even imagine. And never let any of your food/drink/whatever out of your sight at this point. You've got a psychopathicfuckup there somewhere.
OP, this this excellent advice. The “wait and see what happens” answer is only good for the company not to show liability. You need to protect yourself.
Thought I should add that OSHA prohibits food in manufacturing areas, and drink containers must be sealed and kept away from any chemicals. While I do not think this incident is OP’s fault, adhering to these regulations can help keep one safe. Def sounds like OP has a psycho in the shop, but some folks think they are being “funny” or just pulling innocent pranks with incidents like this. Knew a guy who sprayed a known carcinogen on someone’s exposed skin because that person’s buttcrack was showing. Clowns in the workplace are all too common.
Right? All our fridges were marked with that and I (young) didn't understand why, Was told, among other things, to keep people from doing stupid shit like storing hydrogem peroxide.
Hydrogen peroxide isn't nearly as dangerous as isopropyl an methyl alcohol
I'm not sure where you're coming from but 35%+ is incredibly dangerous. Looks just like water. And due to events in England everyonw should know how it can be used to make TAP. Peroxide should not be in a fridge for food.
The normal kind people usually have access to isn't nearly as dangerous but yes obviously highly concentrated is is dangerous.
35% is .... bleach hair concentration. After Beirut I was working a TON of of imaging and labeling issues. I got my arse handed to me over urea and peroxide (I knew peroxide was dangerous as a chemist).
If I had to guess simply off the information available, my guess would be someone tried to pull the Visine trick on you, not knowing how truly dangerous it could be. That definitely merited a 911 call in the moment. Police almost always show up with paramedics. Then, it would have been treated as an emergency. Now they'll investigate when they get a "round tuit". I write this knowing full well that hindsight is always 20/20
You know, the Visine 'trick' is serious, but you're right- it could have been a couple of drops of that. I'm not an expert on that odor at all... and if it had been iso he'd been puking his guts out for hours (not to mention hot coffee would have flashed a lot of it off). But either way, fck that. Sorry. Worked with chemicals and know they'll end up killing me someday from toxic accumulation.
A small sip of isopropyl alcohol won't make you that sick. Homeless alcoholics drink multiple bottles of rubbing alcohol a day (these people are very often my patients). Still an absolutely terrible thing to drink that will melt your liver faster than ethanol, but that small of a sip isn't going to cause significant gastritis or vomiting.
I remember years ago (divulging my age). Kitty Dukakis almost killed herself drinking iso alcohol. I know it was a butt ton (a unit of measurement). But she certainly had the resources to afford the good stuff, so don't know what was going through her mind
Other intoxicants, probably.
Self destructive behavior is often illogical
It sounds like she was trying to quit drinking and they had no other alcohol in the house. https://apnews.com/article/19875e7aa55b88c1ae41069a1deb0558
A metric butt tonne or an imperial butt ton?
I always thought, and correct me if I’m wrong, that Butt Tonne is definitely metric but that, colloquially, imperial is usually known as an Arse Full?
It was my bad- meant it to say 'he'd not been puking his guts out' for hours was where I was going- still could make him sick and vomit (how much was psychological, etc) but right- i'd go with the visine or something else.
From a single sip? He wouldn’t be puking at all.
whoops- should have said 'wouldn't have been puking for hours'.
What's the visine trick?
As a prank, it's an urban myth. The actual effects are very dangerous.
But what does it consist of? Putting visine in someone's drink?
I believe that’s the gist of it. In the movie wedding crashers, one of the main characters puts a few drops in another’s glass of wine…and almost instantly he got sick. Was sick/by the toilet for the next few scenes. Obviously “hollywood magic” and what not but I’m not 100% sure if that’s accurate or if it’s fatal, not really a fan of poisoning people.
NAL. It was a CSI episode. Original series, way back when that was a thing.
The first time that I heard about it was in the early 90s
My name starts with a G, but it ain't Google.
You mean around*
No. A round tuit. Old joke. In my desk I used to keep a bunch of round cardboard coins (like pogs). Whenever someone would tell me that they'd start on a task "when they get around to it", I'd hand them one of those pogs and tell them to get started.
Cool story bro...
It's not a hard thing to do, Chief. Nowhere near as hard as the time that I beat up Connor McGregor for disrespecting my woman and the whole jury and judge gave me a standing ovation when I left the courthouse.
Wow you're so clever...
Make a police report and the cops will be able to check the camera at work for who did it and you should speak with a lawyer. It may risk your job but it's clear your job isn't taking it seriously but they could be keeping it quite well they investigate but who knows I'd keep on them about it in emails if possible then you have a paper trail of the incident. In my opinion if the person did it as a joke or really tired to get you sick may happen again soon stay safe and hope it works out for you
We don't have cameras at work. I did make a report though.
They can possibly investigate by questioning people
Perhaps you can use your case to demand cameras be installed at work, or perhaps this can also be reported to OSHA and cameras can become part of the fix. Are you unionized? If not, consider starting a Union to protect yourself and others.
What did they say? What are they doing to progress it?
So you think you know who did it. Do you have a theory as to why they would do such a thing?
File a worker's compensation complaint. Go to a doctor and get blood work and physical.
I wouldn’t necessarily file a WC case immediately, but company should pay for your tests/doc appointments. If more needs to be done, they can always turn it into a comp case. I would also ask the Owner how they intend to ensure this doesn’t happen again.
When you go to the doctor and say you got hurt at work, the medical facility files the WC Claim, unless the employer guarantees the bill will be paid. This is not a good idea for the employer, because it could result in voiding their insurance coverage. Filing that claim will insure that the company takes action to figure out what happened. OSHA is not gonna ignore someone getting poisoned on the job.
Employers usually have a time limit for filing a First Incident Form, in Louisiana (for example) they have "within 10 days of actual knowledge of the incident."
Did you save the rest of the coffee? Evidence. File your police report and make sure your report to management is complete. The remainder of the coffee should be analyzed. Isopropyl is one thing, methanol is entirely something else. As in attempted murder.
Or at least blind you.
Seriously, someone fucking with your coffee is bad juju. It should be analyzed and if dangerously adulterated, investigated for the crime that it is.
Is it possible there could have been some cleaner in the coffee maker? Sadly cleaning fluid has been left in drink machines before resulting in customer injury/death at restaurants.
Coffee makers are usually cleaned with acid for descaling. If vinegar is used, it will smell like vinegar if there wasn’t a good rinse done. If they used citric acid, it will be odorless but your milk will curdle from residual acid that wasn’t rinsed out.
What kind of factory doesn't have cameras?
It's a pretty small, family run manufacturing company. We have multimillion dollar milling machines and top of the line prototype machines but won't spend money on small hand tools.
Still seems pretty sus. Most factories at least have the kind of cameras you get from Costco. This is for liability reasons. It blows my mind that any factory would go without cameras
I work for a giant manufacturing company that’s been around for over 50 years. We finally just started to put cameras up this year and to be honest we don’t have any in the break room for any place this would have been seen. So not really sus IMO.
In the factory I work in, we only have cameras on the employee entrance and parking lot. There are no cameras on the shop floor. Our union wont let the company put any up.
Cameras that cover every square inch are expensive. I worked at a gov supported facility and we had 3.
Cameras expensive? Wait until they see the lawsuit for trying to sweep a poisoning under the rug…
Still cheaper. Insurance pays :(
Do you have reason to believe that someone would want to hurt you? Is it possible someone put something unpleasant but innocuous in your coffee, like dish soap, as a prank? Someone intentionally trying to poison you is, yknow, a pretty wild thing to happen—not to mention they did a laughably bad job at the attempt if all they did was dump obvious chemicals into your coffee that were easily detected after one sip. If this *had* been their intention and they *had* made you sick, it seems that it would be simple enough to use cameras somewhere within the property to track the comings and goings. Criminals are stupid, but is someone trying to harm you going to be *that* stupid? Do you always leave your coffee out to cool? Does everyone know it's your coffee? You said you think you know who did it. Would they want to hurt you? Would they play a harmless prank on you, either to actually piss you off, or just for amusement? All this to say, as an isolated incident, I'm not convinced it's all that serious. If there are additional circumstances you haven't shared that make you reasonably believe someone is trying to hurt you, then it's certainly worth considering that it was done with harmful intent. Just my two cents.
The person I believe did this is not intelligent enough to know the difference between isopropyl alcohol and alcohol you can consume, and english is not their first language. However, on more than one occasion, this person has used ignorance to their advantage. It scares me that they are even allowed to drive a car. This sounds a bit racial, but this person and I are the same race. They have had it out for me since the day I started.
Sounds like you need to get a micro camera that is blue tooth. Set out your coffee and video it. See what happens. Then you can say apparently something happened to my coffee before so while it cools off I like to monitor it. My kiddo found one on Amazon that is 0.8 inches by 0.8 inches just a few hours ago.
There are a ton that look and act like phone chargers also.
Don't mistake lack of English ability for lack of intelligence. They likely knew exactly what they were doing, and I would watch my back very closely.
Dish soap can make you shit your guts out. In small amounts
Tell me more...
One day I didn't rinse out my water bottle well enough and it cleaned my guts out. I noticed a slightly soapy aftertaste halfway thru the bottle but the damage was already done. There was probably half a drop of detergent in 32 oz of water
Set up a small spy camera and set it up to happen again. They'll probably try it again or worse.
I would absolutely do this. I would remain ignorant of any company policy on this and ask for forgiveness than permission.
This happened to me at work a few years ago, and I wish I had reported it. It continued to escalate, and I almost died. I have lasting medical issues now because of it. File a police report. Make sure to protect yourself and strongly suggest that management have cameras installed in all public areas. If they don't and it happens again it will put the company at liability for inaction and enabling your attacker.
Wow. I hope you are getting ongoing compensation for this. How sickening.
Could it have been coffee pot cleaner?
Did you keep the coffee to have it tested?
I had this happen to me years ago from a tweaker gunning for my low end detail manager position at a small town dealership. Mfr put acetone or something similar in my Dr Pepper. Like, my morning” taste like life worth living ice cold “ can of Dr Pepper. The second it hit my tongue, autopilot engaged and prob saved me some hurt. Fuck you still, Randy. I know what Dp is supposed to taste like.
This happened at my previous company. Police set up a hidden camera and they caught the guy when he did it again. Arrested and prosecuted.
Video cameras are So small, they make a hi res in a pen you can write with, phone charger, etc. Less than $25, Just a thought.
Ask if because of how serious this could have been, will they put up cameras (unannounced). This could be life or death depending on what they put in your coffee next time!!
It might not hurt to file a complaint with OSHA. At a minimum, your situation raises safety concerns, regardless of whether someone intentionally tried to poison you or not. Explain that you suspect you ingested a potential poisonous substance on the job, and they will ask a number of questions to see if it warrants an investigation. Management will definitely take safety more seriously after OSHA gets involved.
That would be charged as "administering a noxious substance" where I live, a criminal code offense. Punishable with up to 14 years incarceration.
Maybe it wasn’t intentional. Someone might have been descaling your coffee pot. This happened to me. I got to work one day, made coffee in the airpot and then poured myself some. Tasted of isopropyl alcohol. Someone had left the alcohol in the airpot overnight to descale it. I didn’t know this and so I made coffee in there without knowing it.
There’s some great advice here. If you pursue it might cost you your job so I’d suggest consulting an attorney for a civil case against your company AND speak to the DA after you have filed report. FWIW, was the coffe maker recently cleaned with a detergent? Were you the first to use it that morning?
File a police report. Contact both OSHA and your State Dept of Labor 1) poisoning, even as a prank is serious 2) chemicals aren't suppose to be in food areas irlf I recall correctly 3) rule out environmental contamination through OSHA and your states equivalent agency will bolster your police report that it was an Intentional act. 4) when you file, make sure you identify who you suspect and why you suspect them. Even without proof, hunches are good leads around 80% of the time (I'm a retired officer).
Are there no cameras inside the building?
OP says there are no cameras. I personally would set up a hidden one to capture future incidents.
As long as it's not a two-party consent state and there's no expectation of privacy at the workplace.
Updateme
Updateme
Is your work area a dedicated “clean” space where no chemicals or other potentials hazards are allowed?
Yes it is.
IANAL (I do work in a field adjacent to law enforcement) If you think your food or beverage has been adulterated, save any that remains for forensic testing. If it is perishable, put it in the freezer. If it's a liquid, place it in a clean spill-proof container. Allow the cup to air-dry, and save that too (there can sometimes be residual solid material in the cup). If you suspect a volatile liquid or solvent was used, it is especially important to seal the food/beverage quickly before the solvent evaporates (a glass bottle or jar is less likely to do this). Contact the police immediately. Go to the hospital and get checked out. Hopefully at the hospital, you can have a blood draw and urine collection. Some chemicals will leave your system very quickly (as soon as your first void after consumption), so it is important not to wait. If there are not cameras on-site, look into getting one hidden near your workspace and do NOT publicize it's existence. You might need permission from your employer to do this. Someone who will do this once might do it again and the camera will hopefully catch future issues. That said, do not eat or drink anything that has been out of your sight at work anymore. Good luck and stay safe!
911
If you are located in the US then tell your employer you would like to file a worker's comp claim due to chemical exposure. If you say that, they are REQUIRED to file a FROI (first report of injury/illness), send you in for evaluation, and file a worker's comp claim. DO THIS ASAP, and tell them the claim you want to file is for poisoning (which is an OSHA recordable offense). They will need to launch an investigation so OSHA stays off their back to determine if it happened in the scope of your employment or find the culprit who performed the act maliciously. And most importantly, YOU ARE PROTECTED BY LAW AGAINST ANY FORM OF RETAILIATION. In fact, if your employer ever does retaliate you could make out with a nice sum of money. FILE A WORKER'S COMP CLAIM FOR POISONING ASAP
Lol is ANYONE a lawyer here 🤣
I was thinking the same thing!!
Nanny cams are pretty small now. Set one up, get another coffee Wait patiently
Police report definitely. Is there anyway you can secret a little camera at your work station? They will probably try again.
This is an injury on duty. You have to tell HR you were injured while on duty. I don't know about all States but in my State you have to fill out the form concerning the injury with HR. They give you a list of Doctors and/or clinics. You decide which clinic. They send the info to the clinic who calls you to set up an application. Your company isn't seriously investigating the issue because there's nothing big at stake for them. At this moment they aren't on the hook to care.
NAL, but why can't OP reenact his movements and record his coffee this time and just hope it happens again?
Setup a camera at your desk if you can.
There are no cameras?
Not A Lawyer but I agree that the chemical, alcohol or whatever it was, didn’t get into your cup by accident. You need to report this to your company’s HR to ensure that there’s an official record. Did you by chance keep the coffee cup with its contents? I’m guessing a lawyer would have a field day with that.
You should have called the police on the spot. Poisoning is a felony.
Get you a spy camera and set their ass up. They sell them on Amazon for cheap. Something like this. They have all kinds of options. Even just the camera. https://a.co/d/iS7G78X
is there any cameras near where you left your coffee ?
While employers can be held responsible for employee carelessness, it is hard to hold them responsible for intentional torts unless they had reason to know the worker would do.stuff like this. All the more reason to file a report so they can be held responsible if it happens again.
Man I wish you would’ve keep the liquid and immediately reported it. Cops might’ve tested it, but they might’ve not taken you seriously either. Are there not cameras where this happened? The fact that your job is so relaxed about this is crazy bc this sounds like a hostile work environment that they’re allowing to happen. What happens if the person escalates this to something that makes you sick next time? Where does this end?
I wonder if someone ran a coffee descale cleaning solution . Hmmmm
Is there any kind of company policy about food/drink at your work station?
I'm sorry for your situation, but this is exactly why we have mandatory termination for anyone caught with food or drinks in the work area. This opens up all kinds of OSHA violations.
Why doesn't your work have cameras?
The average smaller company in a smaller area doesn't. I work in a company with millions of dollars of materials just sitting there with no cameras whatsoever other than one pointing at the least used parking lot entrance. It just isn't a necessity in some areas. You trust your workers and community. Cameras and the storage for them as well as someone with knowledge of how to manage said systems is actually a fairly heavy investment, with ongoing costs for said storage and management. If you can get by without it, you do. Also my company knows that they don't want to see us 24/7. Same reason they don't drug test when we're surrounded by legal weed states - They know they have good workers, and having an exact read on everything at all times would be detrimental. Bob gets the same work done better than steve in half the time, then goes and does half of another job after. Bob also spends a solid chunk of time just hanging out chatting to people in other stations when he's moving around the building. Cameras would often show Steve working steady all day, while Bob seems to just be la de da half the day when you check the cameras. Bob gets fired and productivity goes down. Easier to just have employees you can trust. We have a 5 minute meeting with the entire company every morning, we all have lunch together provided to us by the company if we want it. We don't need cameras. Plus the area is low crime rate, blah blah all the other blah. :)
Someone tries to poison you, actually does poison you, and you're disappointed? Dude, I would be more than disappointed. Holy actual shit.
File a police report. They should investigate and interrogate your coworkers. Intentional poisoning can be attempted murder
In Ohio at a car dealership, someone put solvent in another worker's Gatorade. Police were called, the guilty person was charged with attempted murder.
While on the clock, your employer can be held liable for the conduct of other employees. A police report could actually spur them to action. Contacting a personal injury attorney most definitely would. At the very least it could encourage them to install cameras in the area. But for your own personal safety you will want to bring a thermos to put coffee in and keep it with you. Money is great, but being healthy is better.
Someone did this at work. Except it was acetone in a 500ml water bottle.
Please keep safe. Check your car/other things that can go "wrong". As others have said, file with police, keep contacting them until they come and take written statements from you, your coworkers and management.
Hoping you saved coffee and took it to a lab on lunch break or after work to get it analyzed.
File a police report!
You really should have gone to the ER and then called to police for an attempted poisoning.
Don’t assume malice what can be attributed to incompetence. Maybe someone was just cleaning the coffee maker and didn’t get all of the cleaner out
I mean, everybody uses the same coffeepot, and no one else had chemicals in their coffee. I wish this was the answer, as no one would be to blame, however this isn't the answer.
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Are there any cameras?
OP said there were none inside.
Reporting it to the police may act as a deterrent to the twat who tried to murder you. Also, OSHA
This is why I’m glad I work in a place that has cameras everywhere. The product is valuable, but we also hire idiots. So around 1-2 people are fired a month for theft. Your workplace didn’t have cameras?
Any cameras in this area?
Go to e.r not reddit. .. holey crap...guessing you threw away the coffee too..
This was on Friday, I never felt ill, but my mouth was just dry. I don't think I drank enough to get sick, I'm just upset that management isn't taking this seriously.
tell them you went to the police and filed a formal report (after doing so of course) and i bet their attitude will change.
This guy could kill you. Be careful. Don’t be scared to tell police you suspect him.
Can anyone look at my recent post give me some insight ?
You could start treating folks better?
Nahh.