People Say Customer Shouldn't Feel Guilty After Cashier Gets Fired For Ruining ID

Updated September 8, 2021

Although there are many ways that we can see our past actions come back to haunt us, one of the fastest roads to regret is to jump to conclusions.

We'll all have our suspicions about people we come across from time to time but as tedious and methodical as the process of gathering evidence to test them can be, it also usually means the difference been serving justice and ending up completely embarrassed.

After all, it's not like we usually win a game of Clue by immediately accusing somebody.

However, that seems to describe how one grocery store employee behaved in a tale that her customer recently told on Reddit.

About a month before posting their story, a person who goes by Sensitive_Positive37 on Reddit was shopping for some supplies at their local grocery store.

Reddit | firstcut

As this person wrote, they're not originally from the United States and English isn't their first language, so the cashier quickly noticed their accent.

This was the subject of some fairly pleasant conversation but since the customer's cart had alcohol in it, they needed ID. So they pulled out their driver's license, which was acquired in a different state that they previously lived in.

This apparently led the cashier to believe that the ID was fake since she was under the impression that non-citizens weren't allowed to have driver's licenses.

Reddit | apathetichearts

As a result, she attempted to confiscate the ID and refused to ring up the order even after the customer offered to put the alcohol away and just buy the basics.

In their words, "Listen it's not a fake, if you want I can show you a picture of my passport to check my name and DOB and know this isn't a fake ID. THEN will you give me back my ID, let me buy my stuff, and let me get the hell out of a public store during the pandemic?!"

In response, the cashier said, "Wow you're really full of stories and excuses huh! This isn't my first day on the job, I know a fake when I see one, you aren't getting this back."

With that, the cashier took a pair of scissors and cut up the driver's license, destroying it.

Reddit | czmax

Naturally, this made the customer furious because they were now left without a convenient form of ID and now had to take the risky option of bringing their passport everywhere instead.

And so they filed a complaint with the manager and while they maintain they didn't yell, they were clearly furious and explained what the cashier's actions cost them in terms of time, money and safety. They said the manager gave them a gift card and they thought that would be it.

What they didn't know, however, was that the store's management had done more to address the situation than they thought and fired the cashier.

Reddit | rharlow

The customer learned this from the cashier's replacement, who told them that although it was the woman's first offense, cutting up a customer's ID "willy nilly" without consulting management was considered a serious enough cause to let her go.

This led the customer to ask Reddit if they had been in the wrong for making their complaint.

As they put it, "She was trying to just do her job, and I didn't expect her to be fired. And during a pandemic where everyone is struggling, no less. Of course, I feel like I was justified in making a big stink, but I'm sure an entitled person feels the same when they make a big stink about a store not honoring an expired coupon."

However, those who replied overwhelmingly found the situation serious enough to warrant a firing and said the customer had no reason to feel guilty.

One user insisted that this wasn't a simple matter of an honest mistake, saying, "At the very least, she should have let you buy the other stuff and go check with her manager/co-workers about her confusion.

"But no, she was so certain that 'immigrants can't have American license! You're illegal!!' and that 'I don't have to check up on it, I'm the American here and I can't possibly be wrong!'

"She deserved to get fired. Don't feel guilty about this, at all."

As another put it, "Some things are worth being fired over, even if it’s a first strike.

Harassing a customer and destroying their government issued ID in a fit of xenophobic rage is one of those things."

Still others said that her actions could have been outright illegal depending on the state this took place in, which opens the store up to liability they obviously neither want nor need.

The only issue that anyone seemed to have was the idea that the customer got the cashier fired, instead maintaining that the cashier got herself fired through her rash decision.

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