Nobody likes to be wrongly accused of doing something wrong especially when what they’re accused of is a crime!

This employee is accused of stealing, but instead of simply getting mad, she turned into a full-on spy.

Let’s see what fuels this story…

Accuse me of stealing? You will lose everything

First post…be kind! This happened way back in the dark ages, 1986.

I was 21 at the time and working for a gas station that was associated with a certain grocery store chain in Washington state. It was owned by a company not affiliated with said chain, but had locations at nearly every one.

As this was long before the days of debit cards, this was a cash only gas station. We didn’t even take credit cards.

The job didn’t last long.

Customers would pull up, pump their gas and then come to my window to pay. We also sold cigarettes. No drinks, no snacks…customers couldn’t even get into my booth.

I had been working there about a year when the company announced it was closing the location.

My manager and I were offered positions at another location upstate and we both accepted. We moved our respective families and started our new jobs.

As new hires (ugh).

Being the newbie isn’t always easy.

This station was incredibly busy. We did more business in 8 hrs than my old location would do in a week.

This location also had a different set up: here you would pull into the station from a single entrance, pump your gas, and then drive forward to a single exit where the “Pay Here” booth was located.

There were always 2 cashiers on duty. Each cashier had a cash drawer.

Sounds like a simple enough system.

One thing I should note, there were also no computers. So closing the drawer down between shifts was timing consuming and tedious.

We had to manually count the cigarettes remaining, and count the cash drawers. We would fill out an end of shift report listing the starting balances and the ending balances. We also had to list the gallons sold from each pump.

At the end of the shift the total of gallons sold and the total cigarettes sold should equal the cash balance.

She was falsely accused of stealing.

It is important to note here that not once in the year I had worked for the previous location had I been off by more than 10 cents.

The following morning after my first shift I was informed by the manager that I was short $50.

Impossible I said, I balanced out yesterday.

He said that I must have stolen that money after I had completed the paperwork.

I just looked at him and said, no I didn’t.

He gave me a verbal warning and said if it happened again I would be fired and the stolen money would be deducted from my paycheck this week.

Is the manager really going to accuse everyone of stealing?

In the 5 days that followed I realized quickly the manager was up to something. My old manager who was just another worker now, was also accused of stealing.

As was one other new employee. I can’t vouch for the other employee but I’m pretty sure she did nothing wrong. The employees that had been there awhile were never accused of anything.

I did some checking and found out this manager was relatively new (had only been there about 6 months) and the other cashiers had been here before him.

Only new cashiers were being accused of stealing. And that location had been having “stealing problems” for about 6 months and the turnover was high with the new employees.

I came to work at 6am on a Monday only to be told I was being fired. For cause.

The manager sounds quite suspicious. Time to pay attention!

The manager accused me of taking $500 out of my drawer the previous Friday. He said he only discovered it this morning (even though he had worked Sat and Sun). I said ok and left.

I was pretty angry and instead of going home, I parked in the grocery store parking lot and proceed to settle in to watch the gas station.

I knew that at 9am sharp, he would take the cash in the safe and make the weekend deposit. At 9am he left the gas station and headed to the bank. But instead of walking into the bank, he walked into the Indian “casino” next door.

She takes pictures of the manager day after day.

It’s not really a casino like we think of today, but more of a betting parlor for the races. It did have slot machines, but no card tables.

I think “Well, this is interesting.”

He comes out of the casino at exactly 10 am, walks next door to the bank, does his business and then heads back to the gas station. I head home with a plan.

Every morning I follow him from the gas station to the casino.

I take a picture of him leaving, and one of him arriving at the bank and walking into the casino. I take pictures of him coming out and then heading to the bank.

I do this for 5 days straight. He even went on Saturday. On day 3 my old manager was fired for “stealing” $150.

She actually talks to the CEO!

I get the film developed (no digital camera in the dark ages) note the times and dates on the back of each one. Then I call the main office of the gas company.

It’s after 5 but I’m hoping someone is there. And there is. I speak to a woman and explain my situation and she says she knows exactly who I should speak to and transfers me.

By some grace of God, she has transferred me to none other than the President/CEO of the company!

Nothing like seeing your bad boss get arrested to brighten your mood!

I tell him my story and tell him I did NOT steal from his company and could prove who actually did. He took down my information and said he would be in touch.

I’m thinking to myself “yeah right.” The next morning I went to the station to perform my usual observation of the manager. At 9am he leaves for the “bank.”

At 10 am he comes out. At that moment 2 stern looking gentlemen approach him. One pulls out his wallet and shows him something. The other one is talking.

The manager goes pale and takes a step back.

Next thing I know he is being escorted to a car I hadn’t noticed and they drive off. I lose them at a traffic signal so I head back to the station. They all show back up about 5 min later, and a few minutes after that a police cruiser pulls in.

The officer talks to the stern gentleman and proceeds to place the manager in handcuffs. The other man says nothing but is glaring daggers at the manager.

Now that’s justice at a good price!

The President called me later that afternoon and informed me that the manager had been arrested for embezzlement (turns out that in 6 months he had managed to steal about $5k).

He would take the store cash into the casino and gamble with it; if he won, he would make the normal bank deposit. If he lost, he would make the deposit and note in his records that we had been short the previous day.

The CEO had already been focusing on that location because of the stealing and high turnover rate, but my information helped them figure out what exactly had been going on.

I was thanked and sent a substantial check as a reward.

The story has a happy ending…expect for the manager.

My old manager was offered the manager’s job and I was offered my old job back. I declined as I had already found another job that I liked more and paid better.

The gambling manager was sentenced to 1 year in jail and ordered to attend counseling for his gambling addiction.

His wife divorced him and took their 3 children to California. His house was foreclosed on and he ended up in a homeless shelter.

Don’t accuse me of stealing. I will get revenge.

Moral of the story: Gas used to be cheaper.

Wait, maybe that’s not the moral at all. Maybe, don’t steal from your company and try to blame it on your employees? Yeah that sounds more like it.

Let’s check the reaction to this story in the comments on Reddit.

One person relates from all the way across the ocean.

Another commenter laments the good ol’ days pre-internet.

Another user says, forget the revenge, I want that job security!

Another commenter thinks this guy is toast.

This person says the geographical move is crazy, but the revenge move makes sense.

Don’t play with fire, especially if you work at a gas station.

If you liked this post, check out this story about an employee who got revenge on a co-worker who kept grading their work suspiciously low.