Shell employees Gitte Niegsch hailed as a hero when she stopped drunken motorists from venturing out on the roads. But a few days later, she was fired.
For that she was not wearing his yellow reflective vest when she stopped the criminals.
– I can’t stop crying, I’m totally heartbroken, she says.
33-year-old Christopher Niegsch had worked at the Shell garage in Slagelse, Denmark, in just over three years, when she was in the spring followed his instinct.
On two occasions, she discovered how the motorists who stopped at the gas station to refuel, was about to run away again, although they were significantly intoxicated. Gitte reacted and responded on both occasions.
– The first time it was a man who was really packed. I took the keys and persuaded him to leave the car and get back into the gas station. There, I called the police, who came and arrested him, says Christopher.
Hailed as Hero
A few days later, it was time again. That time it was two drunken people who would run away, Christopher called the police and asked if she could seize them, in Sweden a so-called citizen’s arrest, which they approved.
– But the two men managed to run away. Police could arrest them later using signalementet I gave them, says Gitte who initially hailed as a hero.
After the first incident, she rang her boss to pay tribute to her for what she has done. But a few days after the second incident took Gittes lives a completely different turn.
Suddenly one day the boss called Christopher to his office.
– She said, ‘Christopher, you have done wrong. You did not wear your yellow vest with reflective tape; you have violated staff rules, so you have to go away right away, “says Gitte as she begins to cry.
“Loved my job as”
When Christopher acted against drunk drivers could not she put on her neon yellow safety vest, which the staff according to the regulations must have when they leave the store and heads out on a petrol station area? It was the reason she was dismissed – with immediate effect.
– I had to go. Had I got fired, I had had at least three or four months’ notice, but now I had broken the rules and would disappear immediately, says Christopher.
– During the meeting, I understood nothing. I thought they would thank me, but instead they gave me a paper and told me to leave. I wept uncontrollably and could not understand that I lost the job I loved so.
While Shell gave Gitte police fired acclaimed her as a hero. Recently, she received a prize for its courage and a reward of 500 crowns for their intervention. Money and accolades are a little comfort at this time.
For the Danish newspaper sn.dk defends the Danish Shell Communications Jesper Brieghel dismissal of Christopher.
– I’d rather defend our strict rules for a journalist than to see one of our guests to be responsible for an employee’s death, says Jesper Brieghel.