A longtime Ford employee has rejected the company’s offer to return to work after he was wrongly fired over allegations that he stole a $1.95 cookie.
Kurt Kromm, 60, spent 11 years repairing robots and automated equipment at Ford’s Kentucky Truck Plant in Louisville before he was dismissed over what the company believed was an unpaid purchase at a self-checkout kiosk.
According to Kromm, the incident occurred on May 9 during his overnight shift. A diabetic, he said his blood sugar had dropped to a dangerously low level, prompting him to buy two Grandma’s Chocolate Chip Cookies from an Aramark self-service kiosk.
Kromm explained that after swiping his debit card, the payment screen briefly flashed red before displaying neither a confirmation nor a rejection. Believing the transaction had been processed, he returned to work.
A week later, on May 16, supervisors summoned him to a meeting where he was shown surveillance footage and accused of leaving the kiosk without paying. He said he was immediately terminated and escorted from the facility without being allowed to collect his personal belongings.
Convinced a mistake had been made, Kromm reviewed his bank records and found that the $1.95 payment had, in fact, been processed. He forwarded screenshots of the transaction to Ford management and union representatives.
After requesting a notarized bank statement to verify the payment, Ford eventually acknowledged the error. The company offered to reinstate Kromm with full back pay, reportedly amounting to about $33,000.
Despite the offer, Kromm declined to return, saying the experience had severely damaged his trust in the company.
“There was no apology,” he said. “There was just, ‘Oh, you’re not coming back?’ No, I am not interested in coming back.”
He described Ford as a “home away from home” and said he had expected to remain with the company until retirement. However, he believes the way the situation was handled left him with little reason to return.
Kromm also criticised Aramark, the company operating the self-checkout kiosks, alleging it shared surveillance footage with Ford before confirming whether the payment had actually been processed.
Ford declined to comment on Kromm’s specific case but said that when situations are found to have been handled incorrectly, the company works to correct them.
The incident has sparked discussion about workplace disciplinary procedures, with Kromm arguing that a simple request to verify or repay the purchase would have been a more reasonable response than immediate dismissal.
