Andrew Anderson, a 19-year-old employee at a Goodwill store in East Naples, Florida, was arrested and charged with felony grand theft. His crime? Providing discounts to customers who appeared to be in
desperate need:
The 19-year-old was an employee at Goodwill Retail and Donation Center in East Naples -- giving out discounts to customers he thought were in need.
"People would come in on bicycles -- wearing all of the clothes they had, coming in with $2, $3 max," Anderson said.
Not thinking anything of it, Anderson would cut prices in half, leaving families with a smile.
"I wasn't actually stealing. Goodwill is a giving and helping company, so I took it upon to myself to be giving and helping because I feel people deserve it," Anderson said.
Anderson said he didn't realize he was committing a crime, never profited one dollar, and only worked at the store for two weeks. In fact, he offered to pay the difference out of his own pocket. That wasn't enough for Goodwill officials:
"Our stores are not around to give a hand out, they're around to give people a hand up by providing funding, said Kirstin O'Donnell, a spokesperson for Goodwill Retail and Donation Center in East Naples.
"In incidents like this, we always prosecute and the reason why is when people steal from Goodwill, they're not stealing from the company, they're stealing from the mission of our organization."
It's too bad Goodwill officials couldn't find a better way to deal with the situation than firing the kid and having him face felony charges.
See the local news report below the fold.
EDIT: On the evening of Friday, September 27, Goodwill International sent out this tweet:
Looks like they had a change of heart. It is still unfortunate they had the young man arrested, but at least he is no longer facing charges.
NBC-2.com WBBH News for Fort Myers, Cape Coral