I was fired for theft and I'm nervous about future employment....

JaxCole91

New Member
All right, so from 2011 until 2012, I was working at (name removed).
I was trained to work at every shift, but I was normally the overnight worker. The store had a VERY high turnover rate for people who worked the overnight shift due to the stressful environment. My shift was 10pm until 6am. All though I was scheduled to be finished by 6am, pretty much every day the morning workers were late to their 6am shifts and I couldn't leave until around 730am. During the overnight shift, unless there was a new person who had to be trained on what to do during the night there was only one person in the entire store. The restaurant area would be closed and the drive through would be the only way to place an order. I would like to point out that this job was extremely stressful for one person to handle. Bagel baking, inventory, food prep, machine cleaning, cleaning the restaurant (dishes, floors, garbage, etc...) - all had to be finished by the time the shift was over or else you had to stay and finish your job. At the same time, you had to complete every order that came through in an ideal time of 2 minutes or less. After being around the smell and taste of everything coffee, I began to get sick every time I tried to drink the stuff. The manager had said that employees could grab a drink from the minute maid/coca-cola case if we didn't want to drink (deleted store) coffee - but wed have to pay for the drink we took. One night, when the shift first started, I grabbed an orange juice and used that as my drink for the night. This night was particularly busy because the local college had just started classes again and I swear every college kid came through that night. Once my shift was over, I was glad to leave and get home to my bed. The next day I was called in to talk to the manager. She had told me that I was taped last night taking a juice and not paying for it. I quickly apologized and ran to my car to get the $2.75. The manager didn't make a big deal about it, she was actually pretty nice. She just reminded me that I cant get caught doing this again.

About a month or two later, I grabbed an orange juice at the start of my shift. We had a little white envelope that employees were supposed to place their purchases in (anything that wasn't a small coffee had to be paid for and the money was to be placed in that envelope) but the envelope wasn't near the register. I searched around the store for a few minutes, and after no luck I just decided that I would give the manager the money when she came in that morning and explain what happened. The night went on horribly. There was so many customers and all the screens were filled with orders pretty much all night - which was unusual for the time of year. About an hour before the morning shift was going to start, an assistant manager came in. He locked himself in the office and I didn't see him again for the rest of my shift. Once my shift was over, and the store manager came in - I was called into the office. They both were there, looking tired and ready to fall asleep. The store manager asked me to sit down and told me that she had caught me stealing a juice from the display. I reached into my pocket about to hand over a $20 which was the smallest bill I had at the moment and she stopped me. She pulled out official looking papers and said that she could call the police, but she didn't want to put me through that. She handed over my check for the week and asked me to sign the paper stating that I was fired. The official reason on the paper was stated as: Took a juice from the display without paying for it. I signed, in complete disbelief and showed her the money. I explained that the envelope wasn't out but she wasn't hearing it and told me to leave and have a nice day.


-For those who took the time to read this far: Thank you.

This incident happened nearly 4 years ago but now I am very nervous about my future. I have been employed since through a small company and was let go do to a normal seasonal lay off but I do have a good reference from the managers there. I spent nearly 8 months at (deleted store), but I'm so afraid to place it on a job application. I'll be moving to another state soon and I'll need to be able to get another job in order to live, but can I? Will every prospective employer be told I am a thief? I am so unsure of what to do. Any help would be greatly appreciated!
 
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There is no way for us to know what the store you were fired from will tell a prospective employer. You don't want to leave that employer off a job application if they ask for your employment history back that far. You got a good reference currently. Apply for some jobs, tell the truth & good luck to you.

It might have been best if you hadn't named your old employer in your post. If you want the name removed, please let us know.
 
There is no way for us to know what the store you were fired from will tell a prospective employer. You don't want to leave that employer off a job application if they ask for your employment history back that far. You got a good reference currently. Apply for some jobs, tell the truth & good luck to you.

It might have been best if you hadn't named your old employer in your post. If you want the name removed, please let us know.


Yes please, could the name be removed? I'm new to the site so I don't know how to edit a post. Thank you!
 
I am a Retail Theft consultant and answer questions like yours daily. If contacted they may tell any potential employer anything truthful. In this case theft. You might be also concerned if your former employer subscribed to any retail theft database and if they placed your name in there for any other subscriber to view. I have some knowledge of who uses what database (if any) but cannot disclose this publicly. You may email me for that info if its a concern.
 
Yes please, could the name be removed? I'm new to the site so I don't know how to edit a post. Thank you!

Done - Another moderator removed it for you before I came back on forum.

Oops, just noticed they missed two places where you mentioned store so I went back & edited it out.
 
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I am a Retail Theft consultant and answer questions like yours daily. If contacted they may tell any potential employer anything truthful. In this case theft. You might be also concerned if your former employer subscribed to any retail theft database and if they placed your name in there for any other subscriber to view. I have some knowledge of who uses what database (if any) but cannot disclose this publicly. You may email me for that info if its a concern.

This would be great! What is the email that I could reach you to talk about this issue?
 
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