Need advice on a driving situation

I would like to obtain some suggestions from experienced folks out there.

ill keep it short and the facts accurate:

grad. driving school in april '08 and started with a flatbed company

feb '09: the company was parking some of the older trucks, not re-titling them for the upcoming year and mine was one of them

mar 6th: i got a new-to-me truck

mar 23rd: had a fuel theft at a truck stop, called the home office and they told me to get a police report and submit via my pay envelope which i did

mar 26th: was by a terminal and submitted a maintenance form for various little problems on my "new" truck, including anti-siphon device needs to be installed in fuel tank.......the maintenance employee on duty told me my truck's fuel caps were "the wrong size" therefore he could not install, i asked what my alternatives were,locking gas caps?, etc and he said just hope it doesnt happen again

apr 26th: had parked my truck for the weekend and went to leave on a sunday night, before entering my truck i see the gas cap on the driver's side is off.......i was parked in a small gravel truck lot behind a BP station and a Hardees restaurant.....get in the truck, check the gauge, sure enough they got about 1/2 tank...turned on my cell phone, no service.....i went to walk around the lot area there to attempt to get a signal and i see 3 cops are at the Hardees.....i walk over there, tell them i had a fuel theft, they fill out the report, i submit it in the pay envelope and go on about my way

when the company received the report at the end of the week in my pay envelope, i was informed i was out of service because i did not call in the report......on weekends there is just an overnight phone attendant at the main office and i didnt realize i needed to call him after the fact because i already had the police report and all he was going to tell me was get a police report........talked with the VP of the company and he told me there was a theft of company property which i did not report immediately, which is true but the company handbook specifically states you have 24 hrs to report an accident or moving violation, which in this case was neither...seems to me that i violated an "unwritten policy" because this is not a situation that had been specifically outlined anywhere within the company's written policies or specifically covered in training sessions.

i had no late deliveries or tickets or accidents or any spots at all on my record so that is clean and though i do understand the VP's stance and unwillingness to budge or negotiate, the fact that i have been "terminated" has completely ruined my opportunity to keep driving which is a drag because i thoroughly enjoyed it and always liked the company....i thought i was reporting it in a timely manner and had no deviant intention, thats why i submitted the report the 2nd time like the first and even tried to have the anti-siphon device installed, which would have prevented a 2nd incident

any suggestions on companies who may give me a chance would be greatly appreciated because i do need to get back to work

i was employed from 04/23/08-05/09/09 so i do have over 1 yr. and a clean DMV record

thanks- ODC

 

yeah you are right and i realize i should've called.....my DAC says failure to report fuel theft