Driver thought he was doing a good deed then got fired for it

I have had reefer loads into landfills, Ive had them go to wholesalers and I have had them go into fields. But never a mission or soup kitchen. I just had a lightning bolt in my head what a gigantic boost 48000 pounds of potatos to a county mission or downtown shelter kitchen would have been, or even several across a whole city.

 

While I understand what you are saying, remember we are talking about Florida. They get a couple hurricanes and tropical storms every year. This is not something that comes out of the blue. So yes, in Florida I see it as not being prepared. Kinda like in MI, having a spare sump pump for the basement around is a good idea, as it will go out during the spring rainy season (at least it will if my luck holds true..)

 

Alternative headline.
Driver reports load of plywood stolen while sleeping overnight in truck. Unable to hear or feel activity because of high winds rocking the truck.

 

I don't know if there actually were deaths involved in the group of people who made use of the plywood they took or were given, or not. Or if any of the same group wouldn't have survived if not for the plywood. Or if any of them saved their home because of the plywood, or didn't save their home after the plywood was installed. The higher possibility of death was certainly present and I think in such situations it's better to be safe than sorry.

Possibly.
For others it could simply have been an answer to prayer.
But who are we to assume that's the case?
Is it really any of our business?
For all we know there were housewives doing their best while hubby is running the interstates trying to earn an honest living. Hard to be home to prepare for hurricanes when they're thousands of miles away. Perhaps there were volunteers helping the elderly brace for the storm.

The police officer who broadcast where the plywood could be obtained was helping others with their homes before his own home and I guess that would qualify him as one who should have prepared sooner, although there are those who'd see a selfless man living up to the police motto, To Serve And Protect.
Just doin' his job.

To lose the family home is a rough way to learn a lesson when regardless of their state of readiness, the ability to help prevent that from happening existed. I'd bet they'd still learn a valuable lesson if the damage to their home were minimized.

You want a plausible reason why, being present during a potentially deadly major hurricane in a declared disaster area might become a life or death situation? I'm at a loss for words.

That's your opinion and you're entitled to believe it to be true. On the flip side of the coin, there are others who see the event differently. And they're entitled to believe that. I think the folks to ask for their opinion would be those who went through the experience themselves. I doubt any of them looked at it as getting something of value for free from a Big truck truck driver with a bad attitude and a chip on his shoulder.

A looter is motivated by greed.
A looter takes things for self profit.
A looter takes objects of great value any time the opportunity presents itself.
A looter doesn't loot to help or benefit anyone other than themselves.

Driver Tim's motivation seems to be compassion and concern.
(I know. Weird, huh? )

Which of the two would you prefer to become your neighbor?
(You can pick, Both, --
but you can't pick neither)
.

 

How would the plywood have prevented the home from being destroyed? At best it helped prevent some damage to the home, and damage to items in the home.

No, I want a plausible reason why the plywood would be the difference between life and death in a hurricane. Remember, there was still time to evacuate at the point he was handing out plywood.

The looter. I've lived in high crime areas before. I can plan around that, with better locks, better doors, etc. Basically make not worth the looters time to keep trying to steal my stuff. The Righteous Man, on the other hand, believes that since he is in the right, no matter the harm done to others it's fine because he has the moral authority to trample everyone else rights. Sorry, but no. If he wanted to give out other peoples property, no matter the reason, he should have made it his property first (by buying, getting an agreement to give away, or whatever)

 

I think there's more to the story. I bet he was pissed off in the 1st place, just being sent there and wanted to get out of Dodge before the storm hit, empty, one way or another. We can speculate all day long. Nobody gives away free load of plywood. Something stinks here.

 

If this is true then the police officer needs to be fired as well for facilitating a load theft.

 

Good luck with that. As has been explained, that ain't gonna happen. Not with the circumstances under which it occurred. The only thing raising cane about it would do is prolong the bad publicity for whoever is trying to cause trouble for those involved. Pushing the issue would cost your company 100 times the value of that load trying to overcome the bad reputation that your hard-nosed stance on this would create. Nobody likes a scrooge. That's why Western Express is making the effort to say "we didn't fire him, and he still has a job here if he wants it", and BOTH Western Express AND Home Depot have come out in support of what the driver did. By playing it off publicly as "the driver made the RIGHT decision to help people in their time of need", they get good publicity as corporations that have a heart and CARE about the communities they serve. That good publicity, again, is worth 100 times the value of that load.

 

Also, this is good publicity for a truck driver; something that's in short supply these days. I don't see why so many of his fellow drivers are trying to throw him under the bus.

 

Plywood boy is the same as that box driver that dumped his freight out on the ground because they wouldn't unload him.

And he deadheaded home? That's a long ways