There are lots of people who would never actually take anyone’s property who wouldn’t feel bad nabbing a sandwich leftover from an event that is 99%+ likely to be discarded anyway. But technically speaking, it didn’t belong to her, so it may not be immoral in the strictest way, but she shouldn’t have done it. It’s not like she went into a break room refrigerator and took someone’s lunch.
worked for a city government office long ago that had one guy who everyone knew stole lunches but no one could catch him in the act. until someone loaded a sandwich with habanero peppers and Louisiana hot sauce. never caught the guy but the lunch stealing stopped that day.
From the article it sounds as if she believed she was allowed to take it. We have food catered in several times a year at my facility, as well as managers and vendors who frequently bring in donuts and bagels in the morning. We have a handful of contract laboratory staff, as well as a regular cleaning contractor. They all know they're welcome to anything that gets set out in the kitchen/break area.
I'm almost wondering if a secretary or some low level employee told her she could take something, but someone else higher up saw it and wasn't happy about it.
Very petty.