A gas station manager in California was let go from the job after he accidentally set the price of gas to 69 cents a gallon instead of $6.99.
John Szczecina was working at a Shell gas station in Rancho Cordova, California on Friday when he mistakenly put a decimal in the wrong spot when setting the gas pumps.
Instead of having to shell out the big bucks to buy a gallon of premium gas for $6.99, drivers flocked to the station to fill up their tank for just 69 cents a gallon.
‘Well, it was a mistake that I did, you know,’ the former manager told . ‘I put all three prices on there except the diesel, but the last one kind of didn’t go, you know, right.’
The error cost the northern California gas station a whopping $16,000, as hundreds of drivers tired of gas prices topping $5 took advantage of the mistake.
Szczecina called the mix-up a ‘nightmare,’ telling the TV station that aside from the worries that come with losing a job, he also fears the gas station could sue him.
The fear prompted Szczecina’s family to start a GoFundMe page for him, hoping to raise the $16,000 the gas station lost so that he could pay them back.
Despite his worries, legal experts say it’s unlikely he would be as employees are protected from liability when they make mistakes while performing normal duties related to their job.
‘The only way he would be responsible outside of a written agreement is if he was acting outside the scope of his employment,’ business attorney Craig Simmermon told KVOR. ‘For instance, if his boss said, “Whatever you do, don’t ever set the price on that gas pump,” and then he did.’
The former gas station manager says he has already filed out 10 job applications, and hopes to gain employment once again soon.
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