My Statement-September 22, 2016-Copied from original hand-written statement.
MESA STORE INCIDENT (first job as assistant manager)
I had been consistently working 60 to 70 hours per week and as of this date, I had gone 9 days without a day off.
I was called into the AD office. (redacted) asked me if I knew what an open door policy was, which I replied yes I did. He informed me some of my peers were concerned about my behavior. He then continued to ask me some questions. One of the questions was have you ever took merchandise off the floor without paying for it. I replied, no I never have. (redacted) then asked me again have you ever taken merchandise off the floor without paying for it. I replied again, no I never took anything without paying for it. I then asked what’s going on here. (redacted) then replied I have all the evidence right here in this folder of you taking merchandise. I then replied can you tell me what you are talking about. (redacted) then replied if I told you there would be no point of me talking to you. I want to hear it from you. Again, I replied. I need to know what you are talking about. (redacted) then proceeded to open the folder, took out a security cam picture of me at the checkout with the cake and then asked is this you. I said yes. I was so upset about being questioned like I was a shop lifter or something that I simply did not think to tell him I was at the register with the cake to CFTd (redacted) gift card.
So again I asked can you tell me what I did wrong. (redacted) said, Claudia you took a box cake off the shelf and didn’t pay for it. You also took cheese sticks and a pair of shoes. I told him I didn’t know anything about any cheese sticks but I did know something about the cake and the shoes. (redacted) then said stop lying to me already and tell me everything maybe I might be able to help you. (redacted) then said Claudia is there something going on at home that we don’t know about. Tell us we’re here to help you. Your peers are concerned about your behavior lately.
I told them the cake incident happened over a month ago and that the cake was for (redacted) promotion celebration. [1] The shoes I took off the shelf at 10:00 p.m. because the only shoes I had with me were soaked with block whitener after bleaching the deli and my feet were burning.
(redacted), (redacted) and (redacted) were always made aware of anything I did.
(redacted) then said Claudia you took unpaid merchandise from the store. I then told him again the cake was to celebrate (redacted) promotion. We do this for everyone that gets promoted or leaves the store.
The store manager, (redacted), was well aware of me taking (redacted) to the bakery to get a cake and me getting her a gift card. I asked (redacted) before I took the merchandise. (redacted) then told me to take it to the back and then I’ll meet you guys in the break room. (redacted) was upset because so far she had not heard of any plans for celebrating her promotion. I wanted to do something nice for her since I was her manager. We continued to walk to the back with the cake and set it on the breakroom table. Then (redacted), (redacted), (redacted) and a few associates came by the table to congratulate (redacted). (redacted) then apologized for forgetting earlier but she said there was a lot going on in the store. (redacted) then asked me if I had CFTd the gift card and marked the cake down. I said yes I did. She then said Claudia go make sure it’s done. So, I walked back and made sure the gift card was CFTd, then had the bakery print out a bakery tag then walked back to the breakroom and asked (redacted) to scan the cake out please, just so (redacted) can see you do it. (redacted) then said okay, now I will have some. (redacted) took a picture of me and the cake on the way to the breakroom.
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The shoes explained.
It had been a long day already when (redacted) and (redacted) asked me to clean the deli because we were expecting a visit the next day. I washed the walls and floor of the cooler and everything else. When I was almost done cleaning, block whitener (bleach) HS concentrated blend got on my shoes, pants and arms. I washed my hands and arms and tried to wash the bleach off my shoes but it wouldn’t come off. It was burning my skin and my feet as I walked toward the backroom I walked by shoes that looked similar to the ones I was wearing. They were under $10.00. I looked for my size and walked to the AD office where (redacted), (redacted), (redacted) and (redacted) were all sitting. I said my feet are burning really bad, I’m going to have to store use these shoes because I can’t handle the pain. They all started to laugh except (redacted) Ast. Mgr. who walked away saying that’s messed up that they are laughing at me. (redacted) said you better scan them out but no scanner was available. So (redacted) turned around and said Claudia, put the tag in (redacted)’s store claims container next to the claims cage. I took the tag off and put the shoes on with no socks. My feet were starting to blister and I asked (redacted) if I could go home. She asked if I was done. I said I can’t finish I needed to go. She said fine, just go. (redacted) said don’t forget to take those other nasty shoes with you. I put my old shoes in a bag because I was embarrassed and walked away. This is the way this 16-hour day came to an end for me.
I was off the next couple of days but before I left for work my husband made sure I took the shoes back. He put them in the same bag I had put my old shoes in. When I got to work I went to customer service where I handed the shoes to (redacted), a customer service associate. She asked me what to do with them when I see CSM. (redacted) walked up at this time and said don’t worry Claudia I will take care of them. I’ll get the UPC and I will put them in claims. I said thank you and went on about my day.
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Saturday, October 08, 2016
More about the shoes.
October 4, second meeting. (redacted) and (redacted).
Part of the conversation from my formal statement. (redacted) looked at me and said Claudia you need to take responsibility for your actions. The day (redacted) and I sat in the office with you, you were wearing the shoes you took.
[At the time of this meeting I didn’t think to ask (redacted) how did she know for sure these were the shoes I borrowed from the store nearly two months ago? She wasn’t there. Someone obviously , within the hour, had told her these were the store shoes they accused me of stealing. This means that someone must have known why I borrowed the shoes in the first place. And why now? Who called (redacted) to the store two months after the bleached shoes accident?]
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing from (redacted). (redacted), (redacted), (redacted), (redacted), (redacted) and (redacted) all know I didn’t steal the shoes. Has anyone asked them what they know? I know how they would feel if asked about something like this. They might be afraid of losing their jobs.
I offered to show (redacted) and (redacted) the shoes I was wearing were Skechers not Daskin, the Wal-Mart brand. They were not interested. I had two pairs of Skechers I threw the old bleached pair away. I returned the Daskins to the store. The shoes I wore to this meeting with (redacted) and (redacted) are the ones in the pictures in the included folder.
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Claudia Sobarzo, Employee of Wal-Mart #- since 2002. Assistant manager Mesa store.
To accuse a loyal, employee like me of stealing a cake that was to be thrown out or a pair of $10.00 shoes and risking my job that I so desperately needed makes no sense. I am the sole supporter of my two teenage boys and seven-year-old son. I worked long and hard for years, most of them as a single mom, to get a manager’s job does it make any sense I would just throw something away I needed so bad and worked so hard to get?
They further insulted me by offering to demote me two grades and put me on a one year’s probation. Anyone who has been with Wal-Mart very long knows better than to take such a ridiculous offer. Anything the least bit wrong would be grounds for termination.
The night before the shoe incident took place the crew was prepping the cold room and no one had a sweater. The manager told the crew to go get sweaters from stock and no Store Use tags were issued.
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I have always been a reliable employee. I work as many hours as I’m asked to and always go in when called no matter whether I feel like it or not. The only time I have missed was when I had a ruptured appendix.
I want everyone to understand the reason I am fighting these charges is that they are totally false and will ruin my career with Wal-Mart. I did not steal anything from Wal-Mart and never have. Please go back over my 15-year record with Wal-Mart to prove this. I don’t want to cause anyone any trouble, I just want to clear my name of these false charges, keep my job with Wal-Mart and put all this behind me for good. I am ready to go to another store where they need me, get along and do the best job I can.
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People accusing me have had their say. I want point out a few things about all this. I believe I have that right since I have been humiliated and insulted by my associates.
Has anyone other than (redacted) or (redacted) actually gone to the store and questioned the people who can prove I am telling the truth?
This is a sentence from my written statement: (redacted) then said: Claudia is there something going on at home that we don’t know about. Tell us we’re here to help you. Your peers are concerned about your behavior lately.
This is another part of the story I don’t buy. I don’t really believe any of my accusers cared any more about what was going on in my home than they did about me as a human being. The way they acted toward me from my first day on the job and at all stages of this issue proves it. I ask anyone how they would you feel if people had turned on you like (redacted), (redacted), (redacted) and (redacted) did me, leaving me with no way to pay my bills? Having to turn to relatives for grocery and rent money? How would you feel? Also, people get exhausted when they work long hours for weeks at a time. It took 2 hours and 20 minutes a day for me to just get back and forth to that store.
From my first day in the store I felt like they didn’t want me there. I was constantly picked on and bullied by (redacted) and (redacted) mostly. When I would go to (redacted) with a comment or concern she would just laugh or say I was lying. (redacted) liked to ask me what kind of drugs I was taking and were they legal. I thought that maybe if I worked hard, did my job, followed the rules and helped make the store work I would be accepted. I never was. I was bullied and looked down on from my first day to my last. Many nights I went home and cried from frustration and stress. Maybe I would have been accepted had I socialized with them. I have a family to look after and between family and the long hours and the long drive back and forth, I didn’t have time for anything else.
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Saturday, October 08, 2016
After having time to think about this issue I figured out why the management kept calling the police and sending them out to bother my relatives with concerns about my hurting myself or others.[2] They did this twice and I now know why and who was behind it. (redacted) and (redacted) were the ones who two years ago had a conversation with Mr. Goodman (not his real name), my assistant manager at another store telling him the store manager had fired him. Shortly after finding me in the store and saying good-bye, Mr. Goodman went out to the parking lot sat down in his car and committed suicide. [ This piece of the story tells of needless tragedy. Mr. Goodman was, by all accounts, a decent man who did the right thing by refusing to fire Claudia for doing something that he had told her to do. Mr. Goodman pulled Claudia off a cookie baking project to man the cash registers, customers were having to wait too long, after the store manager had instructed Claudia to do some baking. Seeing Claudia was on the cash registers and not in the bakery, in a psychotic rage, store manager told Mr. G. to fire Claudia for not following his directions. He refused and next day, I believe, the two HR types came to the store to inform him he’d been terminated by store manager. Mr. G. was in his early 60s and probably could not cope with the idea of starting over, so he chose to end it all. What if Walmart had had a review committee in place to override the psycho store manager’s whims? What if?? And if the truth be known, this needed review committee is probably still non-existent. This tragedy still haunts Claudia to this day.]
Saturday, October 08, 2016
Also, today a little more of the story came back to me. After failing to get me to confess to the false charges (redacted) was annoyed and suggested I take some time off to get myself together. I don’t know what she meant by getting myself together. All I did up to this point was defend myself and refuse to go along with her insulting charges. She mumbled something about not listening to 5 more hours of my ranting and suggested I take some PTO and after that my short term disability would take over. Her promises about the PTO and short term disability was not what happened. I left with a check for a little over $400.00 and that’s all and have been unable to draw any money since.
ADDENDUM-Sunday, April 30, 2017
We thought this additional information about Claudia’s despicable and illegal treatment by Wal-Mart employees at the Mesa store (#3799) was best presented as an addendum to main body. This entry is best thought of as a more detailed account of how Wal-Mart employees chose to treat another, vulnerable human being.
THE DAY I WAS CALLED INTO THE OFFICE
(This interrogation session lasted about two hours)
That day was one of the worst days of my life. I was humiliated by management team at store #3799. (redacted) (redacted) CO manager, (redacted) APM, (redacted) AM, (redacted) AM, (redacted) AM, (redacted) MHRM, (redacted) MAPM. and (redacted) stayed behind in the admin office and asked me to stay also. The nightmare was about to start. As I waited to be talked to I saw the management team huddled out in the hall. They were all smiling. (redacted) then taped white printer paper to the office window and sat down. He asked for my boxcutter and all sharp objects in my possession. I had no clue it was to be the day of my termination. I had a terrible anxiety attack , not knowing why this was happening. (redacted) began the questioning. After it had gone on for quite a while, I had to go. I was having a hard time holding it. They said I could not leave to use the bathroom for safety reasons and still (redacted) was trying to get a confession out of me. He said the sooner I confess, the sooner I would be able to go to the bathroom and go home. I asked to go home, my shift is not over till 10:00 p.m.. I couldn’t catch my breath, the room was stuffy and hot and I was trapped in there with only one way out. I started having a panic attack. (redacted) started to get nervous and then he apologized and asked (redacted) and (redacted) to walk me to the bathroom. (redacted) walked me to the restroom and waited for me to finish.[back in the office] I got my phone out of my pocket to make a phone call. (redacted) said he couldn’t let me make a call.[Jury will please note the bullying, high-handed and ILLEGAL technique used by the Walmart inquisitor. And it is clear the WM clique had no intentions of making the same mistake twice. Claudia, unlike Greta the homeless woman,[3] would not be given the chance to call The Open-Door Dept. in Bentonville, Arkansas. It certainly appears the WM actors planned this idiotic exercise well does it not? The terrified little Hispanic woman didn’t have a chance.] I then had the worst anxiety attack of my life. I couldn’t breathe and I just couldn’t deal with being locked in and being trapped in that hot, stuffy room. (redacted) wanted to call paramedics and I just needed to leave.
[I insert here my wife’s account of Claudia’s state of mind after she finally got to make a phone call. She said Claudia was hysterical over the phone. Catherine tried to convince her not to drive but as she recalls, Claudia hung up and headed to our house. I speak for myself here: later that night when she arrived at our house and pulled herself out of that car I saw a pitiful sight. I don’t wish to over dramatize what I saw, I’ll just use appropriate descriptive terms: total despair, distraught, totally crushed, heartbroken.
Those fine folks from Wal-Mart got panicky about what they’d done and that’s when they called the police and expressed grave concerns. Just a simple case of CYA about Claudia possibly harming herself. See account of same incident above. I ask the reader, once again, what would be YOUR state of mind if you were Claudia and had been falsely accused and set upon by your peers acting like a pack of wild beasts? What thoughts would race through your mind if you were the sole support of 2 teen-age boys and a six year-old? Add to all this exhaustion; too many hours worked; too many miles driven in the hope of making it as an assistant manager.
[1] Reader will recall (redacted) name was called out on image of Claudia and the cake.
[2] Catherine Keck, Claudia’s Grandmother, received a phone call from Phoenix Police wanting to know where Claudia was. The officer told Catherine Walmart had called them saying Claudia was going to commit suicide. Imagine her state of mind thereafter.
[3] Greta’s story will be found in next paragraph when you return to main report.