Every workplace has its rules about theft, and normally these policies keep things running smoothly. Sometimes, however, technology steps in and makes a mess of it all. That's exactly what happened at Ford's Kentucky Truck Plant, where an 11-year employee was shown the door for supposedly stealing. The incident centered around a $1.95 Grandma’s Chocolate Chip Cookie that was purchased from a self-service snack kiosk inside the plant. Employee Kurt Kromm, who is a diabetic, said he felt his blood sugar dropping around 3:30 a.m. and went to buy a cookie from the Aramark-operated snack area. He says the first payment terminal glitched out, so he tried his luck at another kiosk before finally getting the cookie. Fast-forward a week and he was called into Human Resources, where a union rep was waiting with management. They accused him of stealing the cookie, fired him, and had security escort him off the premises. Insisting he was innocent, Kromm presented his bank records to Ford and his union, which showed the $1.95 charge. The company, however, wanted notarized copies before even checking with Aramark. Ford eventually confirmed that Kromm had, indeed, paid for the cookie. Once the dust settled, Ford tried to make things right by offering Kromm his old job back with back pay, but by then he had already landed a better job closer to home and wasn’t interested in coming back. Kromm said his trust in Ford was shot, which is why he didn’t want to return. According to the UAW, Ford plans to change its procedures by suspending people while sorting out payment disputes, instead of firing them the way they did Kromm.
