Fuck You, AutoZone
For once we really hate it having to declare the termination of our custom with a particular store, but we have no choice. Most of the time, the business in case is one we’d never do business with in the first place or it’s some business that we really didn’t give a flying Fluke about in the first place, but we’ve gotten many a good spare part from the AutoZone.
No longer, after reading this story:
When former AutoZone employee Devin McClean grabbed his gun from his car and chased an armed robber out of his store, he didn’t think his quick thinking would get him fired.
Ah, just like the Pizza Hut story from years ago when a delivery guy committed the mortal offense of using his legally owned and carried handgun to keep himself from being mugged, brutalized and/or murdered because of Zero Tolerance™ (of letting your employees defend themselves). But no, that’s not quite it. This is worse, if such a thing can be imagined.
As it turns out, McClean’s Yorktown, Va., store was being robbed by the so-called “fake-beard bandit” (probably the worst nickname in the history of crime), a criminal who had already knocked over about 30 businesses in the Virginia Peninsula area.
As the gunman forced the manager to unlock the store’s safe, McClean, a 23-year-old Air Force veteran, slipped out the back to retrieve his Glock 40 from his truck.
Freeze, right there. McClean observes his manager having a gun shoved into his face by an ObamaPhone voter and, instead of cowering under a desk, praying for the BlightBringer to come save him, decides that maybe it’s not OK for his boss to have his head blown off and the store’s funds stolen. So he goes to grab his legally owned weapon to turn the table on the goblin.
“I waited for him to go up toward the front, I ran out of the restroom, ran out to my truck where I keep my own personal weapon, grabbed my weapon, came back into the store and confronted the guy,” McClean recalls.
“When I yelled ‘freeze’ and I said ‘Stop! Drop the weapon,’ he threw his hands up with his gun still in his hand he started running,” the former AutoZone employee adds. “I felt like it was my responsibility to step in.”
The gunman wisely chose to flee.
“I watched him run down the street,” McClean told Fox News. “I came back inside and made sure my manager was okay and he called the police.”
Great! He saved the company’s funds but, more importantly, saved his manager from a sudden death of lead poisoning caused by the twitchy trigger finger of a thug. Good guy! Give the man a medal!
Or, if you’re AutoZone, fire the guy for doing what’s right.
But although the store’s manager was grateful for his employee’s bravery, McClean was fired two days later — right before Thanksgiving.
Happy Thanksgiving, brave employee who risked his own life to stop a felony in progress when you could have just had a smoke in the parking lot while your boss got robbed and/or murdered! We thank you for your service!
Other than to reiterate the company’s zero tolerance policy on weapons inside stores, AutoZone representatives refuse to comment on McClean’s firing.
Obviously their zero tolerance policy only extends to their employees, not to their “customers” waving them around and threatening to blow the faces off their employees.
Are you pissed off at GoblinZone now? Wait, it gets better:
And being laid off couldn’t have come at a worse time for McClean: He’s about to be a father.
“We’re having a little boy,” he said. “I remember when the guy came in with that gun. My initial thought was I want to make it home to my family. I want to have the opportunity to meet my son and for my son to meet his dad. And for someone to come in and shove a gun in your face?”
The former AutoZone employee explains that his decision to go back into the store and rescue his co-workers was informed by lessons he learned in the U.S. Air Force.
“Never leave a man behind,” he said. “I’m not going to leave my brother in a room with a guy with a gun — that’s threatening his life.”
Oh, and your kid? Yeah, you’re now “funemployed”, courtesy of the AutoZone. Merry Christmas too! And a Happy New Year!
Fuck you, AutoZone, I won’t ever buy as much as a screw from you from this day going forward.
Merry Christmas.
Thatisall.
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33 Comments »
Auto Zone sucks – If you want a gold crown for your back deck or a pair of fuzzy dice you’re all set – anything more in depth – not so much.
Yup – there are 3 other McParts stores within a mile of Autozombie – no need to shop there again, let’s see if they notice and change their policy. I also hope someone will offer this young fellow a job immediately, shows sound judgement and ability to think on his feet.
I saw this the other day, but haven’t had a chance to write about it. It’s on my list to do. Personally, I think people who defend themselves and get fired by their companies should forgo lawsuits and go straight to criminal charges.
Maybe a couple of CEO’s and Human Resources people on trial for aiding and abetting might change some corporate tunes.
The company I work for has a policy of non-resistance if taken hostage. One problem with that, certain aspects of what the company does would be prime targets for “Man caused disasters” by members of “The religion of peace.”
The idiots who dream up these policies are sheep.
angrywebmaster recently posted..Update to the George Zimmerman case
Crap, the list of retarded places that I will never darken just keeps getting longer. Luckily, the better half and I are getting ready to move out to the farm we are buying. Screw those asses.
When boycotting these shit-swillers, remember that Advanced Auto Parts is owned by the same parent company.
HempRopeAndStreetlight says:
I didn’t know that – thank you for the info.
Np more business from me for either.
FrankOK recently posted..paleoswinians win recognition at united nations
While I commend his action in saving his boss, I gotta ask…why is the thug still wasting oxygen?
Same here, AW…
I took the obligatory anti-terrorist DoD training (as a contractor, this time since retiring) and when confronted with the scenario where the terrorist was outside your hotel room door, my response (resistance) was adjudicated WRONG. I guess I was supposed to turn into a “hostage” while the DoD has expressed their “we won’t negotiate” policy. But, NO. The tiny-weiners who apparently put this training together were big on non-resistance. Fuck them. If a terrorist comes after me, someone’s going to end up dead. Maybe me, maybe the terr. But I figure I have an edge if they’re expecting passivity.
angrywebmaster says:
Same here. Going to write about it tonight when I get home.
LC Nicki the Resident Misanthropic Bitch recently posted..Costas update
I’ve already written them and, politely, requested an explanation. I’ve also mentioned that simply responding with their zero-tolerance policy would be an insufficient answer, in light of this man thwarting a robbery and protecting another man’s life.
If they cowboy up and reply with something other than “it is our corporate policy to require all our employees to become victims,” I’ll post it here.
In Beloit, there’s an Autozone right next to an Advanced Auto – now i know why.
In any case, nonne of the four Autozone and Advanced stores here is posted “no weapons”, and the few times I have open carried in them, the staff was appreciative.
The local NAPA store IS posted, and I’ve told them “no more business until the signs come down”.
If I have to boycott these to also, I’m stuck with the Bumper to Bumper in Janesville, or O’Reilly.
ckuecker recently posted.."1984 was not an instruction manual"
I’ve written them as well – a very polite letter. I didn’t even curse, which may surprise some of you.
I plan to use this as a base for my blog post later today.
LC Nicki the Resident Misanthropic Bitch recently posted..Costas update
These are the people whom when you ask for brake LINE go back and get you rubber HOSE.
Hell, they tell me that I don’t know crap about cars……..
LC Nicki the Resident Misanthropic Bitch @ #:
That tells you all you need to know.
Since I have yet to meet a gun-hating liberal that changes their own oil, I’m inclined to think that Autozone has just crapped in their own mess kit.
I sent them an e-mail (not as well done as Nicki’s) the day this news broke, and I am imagining they have received a blizzard of correspondence on this, none of it good, from silent-majority, salt-of-the-earth types who do for themselves and used to shop with them regularly.
They were never my first choice, but I have spent a small fortune with these guys over the years, maintaining and repairing my own cars, fixing up an old classic, and helping my sons with theirs. Never another penny.
Just another sign of how messed up we are as a nation, that companies can find themselves firing someone for such a selfless and heroic act. This young man, through his actions, just expressed the values that we used to believe were the most important.
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot.
angrywebmaster @ # 3: Love it!
HempRopeAndStreetlight @ # 5: Fuck. Okay, turn south on the street instead of norht from my house.
Mark12A @ # 8: Precisely. You too, eh?
LC Nicki the Resident Misanthropic Bitch @ # 12: I’m borrowing that. Makes an excellent “form letter” format.
LC cmblake6, Imperial Black Ops Technician recently posted..Did John Boehner threaten to punish more conservatives?
Well, guess where I won’t be shopping when I come back from my beautiful desert vacation? Bastards! And oh, so typical of the mindless, stupid zombies infesting my country in ever-increasing numbers.
And, sorry to be an asshole and go OT, but I am trying to thank one of the awesome Rotties (you know who you are) who sent me care packages. I can’t seem to catch him on chat at H&B or in comments here, but here is hoping he sees it…THANK YOU, you are awesome, and it put a huge smile on my face!
This was my note on the AZ contact box on their website.
LC cmblake6, Imperial Black Ops Technician recently posted..Did John Boehner threaten to punish more conservatives?
Pity.
Next time I mix up some Ed’s Red bore solvent, I’ll buy my transmission fluid elsewhere.
I got no problem driving to the O’Reilly’s, or even out to the NAPA district warehouse. Never again will I shop at AutoZone. Hell, the last time I was it there, it was full of the “no speeka de Inglish” types who look like they just rolled in from across the border, and those were the employees!
BUY A TOYOTA then use only toyota parts.
angrywebmaster:
I assume you have a non-implementation policy
concerning this policy.
angrywebmaster @ #:
Uh, if you’ve been taken hostage, you’ve already failed to resist.
I too had a zero tolerance policy regarding weapons. If you came into my office and I knew you had a CCW permit, you had to carry your pistol into the exam room. No exceptions. Violations resulted in stern looks of reproach and threats of gratuitous rectal examinations.
I wear size 9 gloves.
I read about this one in my FrontSight newsletter – Piazza announced that he has a job waiting for the guy if he just contacts FrontSight…
– MD
LC Xystus @ #:
Sort of. The office I was in is in a large factory complex that’s being converted into offices and light manufacturing. I made sure my cube was right next to the door that was always locked. (No way in from the outside.
I planned on using the buddy system. Throw my buddies at them while I made my way out.
The building is in Massachusetts and they have a victims rights law. You have the right to be a victim.
There are now three of us left that are based in that office. (Company taken over and layoffs) Since it isn’t worth the time to drive in, we all work from home. My “Office policy is simple.
9MM Beretta to my right, AR15 just behind me, (Brand new, waiting on the iron sights and scope rings) and a .22 in the “outer office.”
angrywebmaster recently posted..Unemployment up big time
On a more positive note, I was in the local independent pharmacy Wednesday, and a customer called back to the owner “Hey, do you want to see my new pistol?” The two proceeded to examine the Walther P22, noting that since it wouldn’t fire without the magazine, it became a paperweight without it. The owner said he keeps a couple of “paperweights” behind the counter…
Fa Cube Itches says:
ESPECIALLY the “embraces diversity” – isn’t that really shorthand for “Tosses personal values out the window in the hope of making the company an extra buck or two?”
While I was out and about doing my appointed BS this am, I stopped by an AutoZone with some stuff I had bought there a couple days ago and returned it – I explained why I wouldn’t be back and why I was returning their shit.
Fuck them very much. Twice.
FrankOK recently posted..Would have liked to meet this fellow
Mark12A @ #:
I know of what you speak. I say after going thru SERE Level C I should be exempt for LIFE from that DoD bullshit class!! That ‘mandatory’ online course is crap. It hasn’t changed in over 4-5 years..they just added CBRNE. If it was a graded exam, I too would have failed. Online fail…in life pass.
And remember…in the political environment, we can no longer call them ‘double taps’…they are ‘controlled pairs’.
LC Draco recently posted..A Thank You
LC MuscleDaddy @ #: Hmm, missed that one. But then he is almost always looking to hire people at Front Sight.
New slogan for Idiot zone, “Get in the Zone, the Dead Zone.“.
Sheriff says he plans to honor ‘AutoZone Hero’ for taking action against ‘Fake Beard Bandit’