A Hartland, Mich. Wal-Mart employee was fired this week after he attempted to help a customer who was being assaulted in the store parking lot.
Kristopher Oswald was taking his lunch break in his car on the night shift around 2:30 in the morning when he heard a woman screaming from a car in the parking lot, Action News reports.
Oswald, 30, walked over to the car where the screaming was coming from and found a man hanging on to the hood of the woman’s car. He said he thought that it was just people goofing off, until the man attacked him and threatened to kill him.
Oswald said he retaliated, jumping on top of the man and held him down until he was attacked from behind by two more people.
Police arrived and settled the matter, but the ordeal wasn’t over for Oswald. Wal-Mart then fired him, saying in the termination papers that “after a violation of company policy on his lunch break, it was determined to end his temporary assignment.”
The company policy in question forbids employees from assaulting each other or using violence to detain a shoplifter, but says nothing about helping people who are in life or death situations on Wal-Mart property.
“The last thing I expected was to not have a job,” Oswald said.