[UPDATE: The real story is more nuanced than reported by Time.] Vladislav (Sam) Samsonov, 77, worked as a toll collector in Boca Grande, Florida. When the Bridge Authority found out that he occasionally paid toll charges for drivers who didn’t have the cash, they fired him.
Samsonov, a military veteran who had worked at the booth for 29 years, said he was fired for covering someone’s toll fee out of his own pocket. NBC2 reports that Samsonov realized he had charged a truck driver too little and covered the difference with his own money — something he had occasionally done in the past when drivers were short on cash. “In my eyes there was no crime committed, I just helped somebody out,” he told the outlet. “I’d put the six dollars in, I got the six dollars back the next day.”
[YouTube/TIME]
