A man who worked at Home Depot did a heroic thing when he jumped into action to save a child. He courageously and selflessly put the safety of that child before his own job. Unfortunately, he was fired. And now Home depot says that they are considering reversing the decision to let the man go.
But Mr. Dillion Reagan has surprised them by saying thanks but no thanks. He does not want to go back there after they fired him for doing the right thing in the given circumstances.
Reagan who is from Portland, Ore. has spoken out about the events of that day. He said he was just about to finish his shift at the store’s tool rental center. That is when he heard his colleague scream for help. It turns out that there was a loud and violent domestic dispute happening at the parking lot, according to KGW.com. Reagan abandoned everything and quickly ran to see how he could help. That’s when he saw that in the midst of the fracas, there was a child.
He has reported that the only thing that came to his mind was that child’s safety. He stepped out and there was a lady desperately crying out for help.
Her exact words were: “Somebody help me, please! He’s stealing my kid, he’s kidnapping my child!”
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Reagan, who has been an employee at home depot for four years, knew that he had to act immediately for the sake of that child.
He and his colleague quickly went to call the police. The dispatcher had an important request for Reagan. He was asked to follow the man on foot to see where he would go before the police arrived. He was also to be very careful so as not to spook the man. He had followed for about three blocks.
Reagan told ABC 6 that he believes he did the right thing. There were a number of twists and turns that man could have taken and the police would not have known where to begin their search. In doing this, he broke the safety violation of leaving the store premises while on duty. He knew that child’s safety was paramount and he chose to follow the man anyway and risked his job.
Police got to the scene in about ten minutes. Seeing the police, Reagan decided to go back to his post as he was sure they would take it from there.
But when he got back, he found an angry manager waiting for him. His manager yelled that he had done the wrong thing by leaving his post. He had violated the store’s safety code. His manager insisted that he should have stayed at his post.
Regan had quarreled with another employee a few weeks before this. And now that, in addition to that, he had left the store’s premises while on duty, he was fired from his job.
Reagan has said that it was still the right thing to do. He sees it as a kind of catch-22 situation where he was damned if he did, and damned if he didn’t. Plus, he knew he helped in rescuing that child. He would do it again if he had to.
The news outlets reached out to home depot to get their comment on the situation. It was only after this that they began to reassess the decision to fire Reagan. Home depot described the situation as ‘complex’. But they told KGW.com that they were investigating what really happened on that day. They also said that they always wanted to be sure that they treat each and every associate fairly.
After assessing the situation, they then issued a public statement. Their statement confirmed that they had taken a second look at what had transpired. They wished to let Mr. Regan know that they had completely reversed their decision because of the dire circumstances in which he chose to act. They assured that they always did their due diligence to ensure that their associates are treated properly and fairly which is what they were sure they had done in his case.
But they were in for a shock response from Regan. He said that Home Depot can keep their job. His conscience will not allow him to work for a company that dared to place store policy over human lives especially when the life was that of a child. He was going to find a job at another place.
He believes as he told KGW.com, that regardless of policy and no matter the consequences, the right thing should always be done. He knows that what is good and what is right comes from any policy and any orders no matter what.