A California man was fired from his job for making a stark mistake.
John Szczecina was a manager at a Shell gas station in Rancho Cordova, an area near Sacramento, when he made an error that would cost him his job and land him in hot water.
Szczecina had been entering the rising gas prices in the station system when he accidentally set the price as 69 cents.
Szczecina was intending to raise the price to $6.99 per gallon, but accidentally put the decimal point in the wrong spot.
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What's more, Szczecina didn't realize his blunder until several hours later, when it was discovered the business was hemorrhaging money.
Within hours, the error had cost the gas station $16,000 worth of gasoline.
Szczecina reportedly took responsibility for the error and his unfortunately unavoidable termination.
He said:
"I put all three prices on there, except the diesel. The last one kind of didn't go."
"So, I just took responsibility for it and said yeah it's my fault."
Szczecina said he not only wanted his job back, but was worried Shell would sue him for the money lost due to his mistake.
Thus, his family started a GoFundMe to raise the $16,000 lost during the blunder.
Despite the price change being an accident, Twitter users are calling Szczecina a hero.
Gas prices have been soaring in the US since the start of the year.
Prices had crashed to a measly $1.80 per gallon after the initial COVID-19 outbreak in March of 2020.
Now, two years later, we are seeing the highest gas prices in US in history, with some states charging a staggering $7-$8 for unleaded gasoline per gallon.
While many media sources argue the sharply-rising gasoline prices are due to economic inflation, others are calling out the oil companies—who are recording record profits—for price-gouging consumers.
There are no indications gas prices will decrease anytime soon.
