Convenience Store Clerk Fired For Letting A Robber Steal Too Much
Getting robbed at gunpoint can be a pretty traumatic experience. But even worse? Getting robbed at gunpoint and then fired the next day. This misfortune befell one Massachusetts convenience store clerk, who was let go the day after a holdup because he had left too much cash in the register.
A few days before Christmas, a man came into a Cumberland Farms store in Ludlow at around 10 p.m., held a handgun to Douglas Moore's face, and said "give me everything you got," according to Moore. The man took between $100 and $150.
Cumberland Farms' policy is that a maximum of $75 can be kept in the register at any time, in order to provide a "safer environment," it said in a statement, and "to act as a deterrent to crime." The convenience store chain says that this rule has evolved through over 70 years of experience.
Moore (pictured above) claims that he made several trips to the safe that evening, but the register kept loading up with cash. "It was actually very busy," he told local television station WGGB. "People were buying lottery, gift cards, so it was hard to keep track of the drawer and do all my other responsibilities."
But his excuse didn't cut it. On the morning after the robbery, his boss asked him to come to the store, Moore thought it was to check that he was OK. But after about two years of working there, Cumberland Farms let him go.
Cumberland Farms said that its policy had to be "close to zero tolerance," and that Moore "was absolutely not terminated because he was a victim of a robbery, or because the company suffered a financial loss due to the robbery."
But by all other accounts, Moore seems to have been a diligent and dedicated employee. He was putting himself through school, and would work between 36 and 40 hours a week, at less than $9 an hour, reported The Republican.
"I'd be there even if it was morning," said Moore. "I'd close the store sometimes and go back at 5 in the morning, a couple hours later, to cover for somebody."
Many community members are deeply upset over Cumberland Farms' decision. One woman even announced that she would boycott all the chain's stores.
Moore, on the other hand, is trying to move on. He told The Republican newspaper that he has interrupted his studies, so that he can dedicate his time to finding a job. "Unemployment is not for me," he said.
