Fired for protecting a coworker from attack

Talon235 submitted 557 days ago

C-stores... gotta love them or hate them!

For those not familiar with the term, it stands for "Convenience" store. Those neat places that not only sell gas, but various necessities at prices one would usually reserve for spending at a fine dining establishment.

It was a little after 2 a.m., and myself and a female employee are the only people in the store. Being the guy, I was naturally assigned cooler detail for the evening, and at the time was inside it stocking the various libations that we carried.

A customer comes in, and proceeds directly to the alcohol section. Considering the time of night it was, the store's policy was to lock the cooler doors to that section to ensure compliance of state law. The customer was, shall we say, irritated that his desired beverage was unavailable for purchase. He immediately walked over to the female employee and began verbally harassing her when he was informed that there was nothing she could do about the doors being locked. I heard him yelling through the thick walls of the cooler, and immediately opened the door to find out what was going on.

At the same time, the guy stepped forward and shoved my fellow worker hard into the counter behind her. Upon seeing this, I ran the few steps seperating us and grabbed the scumbag in a chickenwing before marching him out the front door. The incident was then reported to the police, but he long gone by the time they arrived.

The very next day I was fired for "attacking a customer". When the security footage was reviewed, the angle of the camera did not catch anything but the back quarter of his profile, and of course me grabbing him and marching him to the door. The sizeable bruise my associate sustained on her back didn't matter since it was not caught on tape either.

Less than two weeks later, the store manager was attacked by the same individual. She kept her job though, because the recently expanded security system caught it all on tape.