In radio it’s general knowledge that if you leave something in the station refrigerator for too long and it’s still edible that at some point it’ll be up for grabs. I’m not sure if the person who put the food or drink there would agree with that but the unofficial time limit is one month. If someone leaves soda or an individual container of fruit juice in the fridge and it sits there more than a month and it hasn’t been swiped by the night or overnight DJ then that person has either been fired or is dead.

Contrary to popular opinion DJ’s, particularly those that work at night or overnight, aren’t rich. They also get hungry and if they didn’t their own food or money with them for the vending machines they turn into vultures scavenging for food. They’re not naturally dishonest but they get hungry and get thirsty and if you’re not going to eat the food or drink the drink you put in the community fridge for over a month it’s assumed that you forgot about it and it’s fair game. When I did the 7-Midnight show at KRZR in Fresno in the early 90’s I remember there being some Kern’s Nectar’s in the fridge. They sat there for over 6 weeks. There were 5 of them so I figured they wouldn’t miss one. Heck, it had been so long since they put them there I doubted that they’d even remembered they were there. So I had one. About 2 weeks later I had another and so on. It took me about 5 more weeks to consume the last 3 and no one said a word. So to justify my actions I considered myself a squatter. I was claiming property that had been abandoned.

Now this isn’t justification for ripping people off, especially people you work with, but there has to be some natural law kind of time limit. After all, if you leave your car on the side of the freeway and don’t show up to claim it, eventually the government will sell it off in an auction.

The reason I find the photo above so funny is that obviously the “owner” of these 2 Pepsi’s (can you really own a soda anyway?) had obviously been victimized at some point by our local “Deejaynator” and had something he or she left in the fridge FOR WAY TOO LONG… pilfered. They got smart and put post it notes with their name on them as if to say “there is no expiration date on the ownership”. All I have to say is if they’re still there in a month, game on!