“Once she realized that she was being observed, she returned the chicken to her plate and departed hastily.”

During my time at MuckRock, I’ve written extensively about the triumphs and tragedies of the Central Intelligence Archive cafeteria(s), including such FOIA favorites as “The Jazz Salad Incident,” “Bacon Accounting,” and “That Scene From Animal House But It’s All The Guys Who Couldn’t Kill Castro.” Before I go, I wanted to share one of my favorite finds from the CIA archives: The description of an employee’s aborted attempt to smuggle chicken out of the cafeteria in her purse.

The incident was included in a memo responding to a proposal that the Rendezvous Room, one of the Agency’s less remunerative cafeterias, be closed. As the Rendezvous Room was also the staging area for the CIA’s infamously raucous retirement parties, the proposal was denied, would-be nugget thieves be damned.

The full memo is embedded below.

Image via Spangdahlem Air Base