Ever worked without someone that got canned out of nowhere? It can come off as quite a shock, especially if they were good at their job. However, there’s always more than meets the eye. Here, people share the time a coworker got fired under mysterious circumstances. This may make you chance your mind about some people you work with.
All stories are edited for clarity.
“Disposable” Income
“When I worked for Walmart there was an older man who had worked there for years. He would put the bikes together for display and after purchases for people who wanted help. He was super nice and extremely helpful. Everyone knew him pretty well, even new hires.
Then one day, security and loss prevention escorted the old man out the door and told him not to come back. This happened out of nowhere, smack dab in the middle of the day. The old man, everyone who saw him (myself included), and everyone in the store who heard the commotion were absolutely stunned and confused.
The reason? Management claimed he stole hundreds of dollars in merchandise. However, when the old man asked for the security tapes that showed him stealing stuff, they refused to show him any kind of proof and then called security on him.
Months later we found out the truth when the old man revealed a life-altering discovery. What actually happened was that the old man had just been diagnosed with cancer. The old man was the highest-paid person in the store who had been grandfathered into an insurance plan Walmart no longer provided. As a result, corporate said our store wouldn’t get a specific part of its annual bonus if he used that insurance to pay for his treatment.
Our store manager at that time was a greedy witch who always kept the entire bonus for herself. Word spread quickly about how she openly said to people that she needed the full bonus to buy her dream car.
Months later after everything had just been revealed to us, she had that car in the employee parking lot. By the time she got off, someone keyed the hell out of it. No one figured out who it was. A week after that, she was transferred to another store after the wife of the kind elderly man sued Walmart, and her, for her deplorable behavior.
The next manager was better and actually shared the bonus with the store, but the old man never came back. I’m not sure if he got a settlement with Walmart, or the evil store manager, or not, but I like to believe he did and was able to get his treatment on Walmart’s dollar.”
Unexpected
“I used to have a work-from-home job. One of my co-workers was labeled as one of the best and most dedicated folks on our team. One night while I was working, I got a private message from her that said she needed to go to lunch early, and that it might run over.
I told her, ‘Of course, I’ll let someone know. Is there a problem or anything I can help with?’ That’s when my co-worker told me the police were there to question her and laughed it off. She didn’t mention what it was about.
She never came back either.
About 2 hours later when I noticed she wasn’t clocked back in yet, I sent her a private message to check in. When I got no response, I went ahead and called her but was sent to voicemail. I let my boss know what was up and said my co-worker had been approved for a late lunch return, but it looked like she wouldn’t be back that day.
About a week later, word came out my co-worker was gone. I spoke with her husband to see what was going on. That’s when he confirmed she had killed both of his parents. He had been away on a trip for work and they were staying with them. She apparently snapped and brutally murdered both of them. They had an acrimonious relationship apparently, and after a week of constant harassment from her in-laws, she had a meltdown.
It’s truly a gruesome story and was absolutely unexpected. It wasn’t just because she didn’t seem ‘the type’ but also because she absolutely wasn’t behaving like you would expect someone who had bodies in her tub that day. She was chipper and very active in the team chat, more so than she had been in a while. In retrospect, that does track.”
A Shocking Revelation
“A couple of years ago I had a co-worker who was hired onto a new project a few weeks after I joined the department. I remember her being a nice person to talk to. She was six months pregnant at the time and always had bags under her eyes.
One day while we were on break, I asked her how she was holding up. In response, my co-worker said she was tired because of her other children. As the conversation went on, my co-worker also said both she and her husband had agreed that they would be having no more children. I remember earlier in the year, two of her children passed away unexpectedly. Seeing how defeated she was, I could only imagine what she was going through.
About a week later, someone came looking for her with our company CEO. That day she was a no-call no-show. It wasn’t quite like her normal behavior, but I assumed something might have been going on with her children. I was right, but the reason for her absence was far worse.
The next day as I was driving to work, I heard on the radio that both my co-worker and her husband had been arrested for causing their children’s death. It turned out that the baby she had lost essentially starved. When it died, the baby was 16 months old and weighed 11 pounds.
I was shocked, but things got even stranger.
When the case hit the news, one of the biggest concerns was what would happen to the couple’s eleven surviving children?”
Let’s Spice Things Up
“Many years ago, I worked in a small office in Manhattan. We all had the master key to the front door because the owner encouraged people to work as much as they wanted.
One day they hired a computer operator. When I first met him he was pretty chill. He had a great sense of humor and seemed like a decent guy to hang around. He was there for about a week when he decided to spice things up at work.
Late one night, the new guy used his key to let himself into the building with a random guy as a plus one. He and the other guy casually walked to the computer room on the second floor. Little did he know, the owner, was actually still in her office on the second floor, working all night.
Imagine the sheer shock of hearing the unforgettable sounds of two men making love as if there was no one else around.
Of course, after hearing the noise, the owner went to investigate.
The computer operator was fired on the spot.”