Termination question

[Roger2008]

I'm hoping someone can help, I am trying to get help for my coworker.

There was an incident where his pop was being stolen on a regular basis (as well as other things from him and other staff members incuding money, personal belongings and food, theft is a big issue).

One day he decided to put a bit of hydrogen peroxide in his pop. As you may know peroxide is an emetic. He has since been terminated on grounds that he intentionally tried to poison his coworker. We now know that no one in fact drank the peroxide laced pop and no one got sick.

He also put several notes on the bottle, one jokingly saying that he would kill them if he found out who was drinking it. This has been interpreted as a death threat and used against him. We know that it was a joke and people everyday use this type of joke in one form or another.

So my question is, was this termination grounded? We have been saying that the pop was his property, he can do whatever he wants with it, he didn't make anyone drink it, he simply left it in the fridge (with notes on it saying that it was his). Its not like it was bleach or ammonia.

Any help is appreciated.
Roger

 

[presutin]

Your friend should have reported the violations to his supervisors and brought his own cooler to safekeep his food until the situation was under control. He shouldn't have taken matters onto his own hands; the termination was justified.

 

[cbg]

I cannot imagine an employer that would not terminate him for this.

 

[presutin]

I see intent to cause harm here - not maliciously, but there is intent; and as we know, they don't need a reason to fire him, so it backfired on him.