Kurt Kromm, an electrician working at Ford’s Kentucky Truck Plant in Louisville, was temporarily fired over suspicion that he had not paid for a $1.95 chocolate chip cookie at the plant. Kromm, who had worked at the plant for 11 years, said he was marched out by security and was called a thief, according to a report from Shifting Gears.
Shifting Gears, a Substack newsletter on the automobile industry, reported that Kromm claims that he “absolutely paid” for the cookie but was still removed from the role. According to him, the incident started with CCTV footage showing a red screen notification at the automatic payment kiosks in the break room, which reflects a failed payment. Kromm said there are two kiosks and the payment may have gone through the other one.
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“I earned over $200,000 last year. Why would I steal? I spent $1,200 last year in the canteen mainly on Diet Cokes,” he was quoted by Shifting Gears. The company gave Kromm the job back after bank records proved he had paid for the cookie. However, according to reports, he declined to return, choosing instead to accept a higher-paying job closer to his hometown of Kenosha, Wisconsin.
“I’m thinking, this is the way my career at Ford Motor is going to end?” he told Shifting Gears.
“There’s no way I’m coming back. First you tell me I’m a thief and then you tell me I’m a liar for saying I didn’t steal. They were so confident I’d stolen. And then I look in my checking account statement and the $1.95 is frickin’ there.”
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While Ford did not address the incident directly, the company’s spokesperson Jessica Enoch said: “We don’t talk about individual cases, but there are times when we look into things and realize it could have been handled differently. When that happens, we try to rectify it. We value our employees and want to be as fair as possible.”
Ford also recently said it was rehiring hundreds of human workers after AI failed to match their skills and experience. According to Bloomberg, the company’s executives said it has rehired more than 300 “veteran” quality inspectors in recent years to make up for the pitfalls of automated systems. Ford’s COO Kumar Galhotra mentioned the company has been increasingly relying on automated quality systems, and not getting required results.