Is this really a fireable offense? I believe in a company to decide freely what they choose to do, but is this what we have become as a society? To fire someone for doing a good deed?

A Times Union story about a Walmart employee fired from his job for redeeming $5.10 worth of empty cans and bottles he found discarded in the parking lot sparked widespread outrage and is gaining traction nationally via social media.

Dounya Hamdam of Chicago read the story from a link on Instagram and started a GoFundMe crowd-funding site with a goal of $20,000 for the fired employee. To donate, go to gofund.me/ewb4c9yk

Tom Lomascolo, a landscaper in Mooresville, N.C., read the story on Facebook and said he intended to send the man a check for $510.

 

Local readers wrote and called the Times Union to express their anger at Walmart and vowed to boycott the store and to send the fired worker donations. An Altamont woman fired off a letter of indignation to C. Doug McMillon, president and CEO of Walmart.

Checks can be sent for Thomas Smith c/o The Center for Law and Justice, 220 Green St., Albany, NY 12202.

This groundswell of civic action was touched off by a Times Union story Thursday about Smith, 52, who liked his job gathering shopping carts from the vast parking lot of the Walmart Supercenter here, where customers often left trash and empty drink containers.

 

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