Imagine working at a store when there’s a new product that’s going to be released, and you know you’re going to sell out immediately. It’s a highly anticipated item, and there are not nearly enough in stock.

If your supervisor did something shady and tried to stick the blame on you, would you rat her out, or would you take the fall?

In this story, one employee who works in the electronics department at a big box store was in that exact situation. Let’s see how the story plays out.

Supervisor set me up, I rolled over on her…

Lets go back in time to a time of wonder and cheer. Clinton was president and I was working at a big box retail store. I worked in electronics and, come October 2000, the gaming world was turned on it’s side by the Playstation 2.

As with all large corporations, our company had set protocols, limits, etc on how to handle the release of the machine.

I was excited… I couldn’t buy one yet but I volunteered to work the release just because.

We get the typical speech. Employees can’t buy them if on the clock, no putting systems aside for friends, all stock must be sold, etc.

They really didn’t have very many PS2s to sell.

So, I forget how much we had but it wasn’t much. I want to say 9 or 10 systems.

We sell the systems, sell some games and peripherals and whatnot.

Almost as quickly as it began, it was all over.

I never knew people took Hot Wheels so seriously!

Tangential note most amusing was the Hot wheels collectors who argued with management that it was unfair to let the PS2 line people in first (huh?) and they were afraid the people in that line were LYING about being there to get a PS2 in order to get in first to get to the Hot Wheels.

Yes… that happened. Look, I’m a geek, I collect GI Joes… but Hot Wheels people are, by far, the biggest freaks of the collecting world.

TANGENT OVER

But it turns out they weren’t really sold out of PS2s.

So, the PS2 rush is over and the people in my department just take that moment to chat… even the supervisor, who we will call SH.

Another team member walks up, talks to SH for a minute.

SH asks me to go to the back room, the games cage and tells me where to find 2 PS2’s in there.

Huh… I kinda laugh to myself… thought that wasn’t allowed but whatever… it was her call. Transactions made, go about my day.

A week later, something odd happened.

Forward to the following week.

I get to work and almost immediately am called up to the offices where I’m introduced to Katie, the regional head of Loss Prevention. Her and the head of the store’s LP team have a few questions for me regarding the PS2 release.

Uh Oh.

Well, they ask some general questions… how did I think it went, did I feel safe, were people pushing, etc. They asked if I had any concerns or anything to say regarding the release.

Oh-uh.

That’s when the pit hit my stomach.

I knew they were fishing about the PS2’s that had been held but I answered the questions exactly to what was asked and offered little else… not being evasive, but rather just taking the question to be straight-forward and answering in kind.

Then, it comes.

Katie asks me what I would think if she said they have me on camera getting 2 PS2’s out of the stockroom and selling them after the initial rush, that they had been held for certain people. They hint, very heavily, that I was the one that put them away and even point out that I was smiling on camera.

OP told the truth.

I explain, first, I’ am a gaming fan and was just excited so that explains my smile.

It dawned on my pretty quickly the cameras are the entire reason my supervisor, SH, had me get the PS2’s from the stockroom… and had me ring up the transaction. I don’t think she did it out of spite or hate… simply I was the newer person to the team and easier to set up.

So I tell Katie and LP guy exactly what happened. I wasn’t going down for this. I didn’t do anything and I’m not going down for her.

Katie says she believes me completely… asks me to write down everything I’ve said.

Here’s the fallout…

We finish our meeting and she says I can go back to electronics but instructs me not to talk about what happened with anyone.

the next day I go to work. After clocking in, I’m headed back to Electronics and I pass SH. She’s walking but looks absolutely sad… shaken. She’s also carrying her purse and a box with some stuff in it.

It was pretty obvious what happened.

She was fired.

People talked. I played dumb… didn’t know what happened. There was one guy I worked with I got to be very good friends with that I eventually told… but I think that was after I left that job.

The supervisor thought she was above the rules and could put the blame on a newbie, but she was wrong. OP handled that situation really well.

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story.

This person comments on the Hot Wheels tangent.

Another person knows how crazy Hot Wheels collectors can be.

Here’s an example of a really obsessed Hot Wheels collector.

Maybe the supervisor was a bad liar.

It definitely wasn’t worth it, but at least she has more time to play video games now!

Supervisors are not above the rules.

If you liked that story, check out this post about an oblivious CEO who tells a web developer to “act his wage”… and it results in 30% of the workforce being laid off.