Greed has a funny way of catching up to people.

This factory employee learned that after a manager he had worked alongside for more than a decade had suddenly lost her job.

At first, it wasn’t clear what had happened. Then, employees started hearing rumors that someone had been stealing refrigerator water filters from the production line.

That might not sound like a big deal, but those filters sell for more than $50 each and bring in a huge amount of money for the company.

Before long, workers started connecting the missing inventory to the manager’s termination.

Keep reading to see how it all played out.

Manager steals massive amounts of stuff from work, gets fired.

I work nights in a factory that makes major appliances. If you’re an American, you probably have something that we make in your house, be it a light bulb, dishwasher, stove, washer/dryer, or flown in a plane with one or more of our jet engines.

My building makes expensive refrigerators. Basic older models are about $2k, and newer fancy models run upwards of $4,500. Many models have Wi-Fi, a few have cameras inside, and some make coffee in the door. Yes, a Keurig coffee maker in the door.

I used to run the portion of the assembly line where doors were installed on the fridges. I did it for 10 years before moving to a job in quality testing last fall.

The filters are a very profitable item.

The manager in question used to work on our minor repair deck replacing doors or other minor items if they were damaged as the refrigerators traveled down the assembly line.

Needless to say, I’ve worked closely with her for over a decade, but we both started working at the factory about 15 years ago.

Believe it or not, our most profitable product is the water filter that goes inside the refrigerator. They cost a couple dollars to make and sell for over $50. Replace the water filter annually and keep the fridge for a decade, and that’s an extra $500+ you’ve paid over time.

All it took was her being on medical leave.

We get cases of these water filters. Each case holds 50 filters and come in a box similar to a box that reams of paper come in, about the same size and with a similar removable lid. Not a very big box, but it holds a retail value of $2,500.

Each shift we use about 16 cases of filters just in production alone. Take just one case a week and that’s $10k a month, $120k a year.

I don’t know how many she took or for how long, but the company caught up to her last month and fired her.

Rumors have been flying that she’s been doing it for quite a while. She was out for some medical reasons for a few months and the amount of missing filters ended and restarted when she returned. Apparently, she or a family member were selling them on eBay.

Yikes! Wouldn’t want to be her!

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a mom who is irate after she gave a group leader money for her daughter’s lunch, only to have him pocket the cash and ask all of the kids to pay their own way.

Let’s see if the readers over at Reddit have any similar experiences.

This person can understand taking them for their personal needs.

So true!

What a great Johnny Cash reference.

Contrary to what this person says, it sounds pretty efficient.

It’s always kinda shocking when someone throws away a long career over something like this.

The manager had worked there for years, and from the sound of it, nobody suspected a thing until the missing inventory started adding up.

Unfortunately, greed has a way of making people believe they’ll never get caught.

Then reality sets in. Now she’s out of a job, and if the rumors are true, those water filters ended up costing her a lot more than they were ever worth.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about an employee who works fast and helps her coworkers, but is met with disapproval from her supervisor because of this practice