VT Volunteer FF Loses Job after Foiling Purse Snatcher

A Vermont volunteer firefighter was let go from his grocery store job after he stopped a purse snatching at the retailer last month.

In August, Amir Shedyak, a 20-year-old volunteer firefighter, had just clocked in at Hannaford, the supermarket he works at in Essex, when a man told him his wife's purse had been swiped, WCAX-TV reports.

“I look to my right, and I see a gentleman running across the parking lot, and he had the purse in his hand," Shedyak told the news outlet.

The fleeing man was quickly stopped by Shedyak, who retrieved the purse and called police. Although the alleged purse snatcher slipped away, police were able to recaputre the 29-year-old man, who was charged with larceny in the incident.

A few days after the incident, the store suspended Shedyak while it conducted an investigation, the firefighter wrote in a social media update. He was fired a week later "due to safety issues while on company time," he stated.

"I have no hard feelings towards my coworkers/ managers or the establishment," Shedyak wrote in his update. "I just feel that what I had done was not wrong and should not have resulted in me being fired."

The store would not comment on the firing because it's a personnel matter, WCAX added. Shedyak, who has already found another job, had worked at Hannaford for four years and had even been named employee of the month in March.