Nick Nabozny says he scanned his Doritos and Ritz crackers, tapped his debit card, and walked away from a self-checkout kiosk at his Ford plant, only to be fired for theft weeks later when the company said the transaction timed out.

Nabozny, 38, had worked at Ford's Michigan Assembly Plant for nearly nine years, earning $40 an hour on the line. In April, after finishing an overtime shift, he stopped at a self-service marketplace kiosk operated by food-services vendor Aramark inside the plant. He picked up two items, a bag of Doritos and a package of Ritz Crackers with cheese, worth less than $8 combined. He scanned them, pulled out his debit card, tapped, and left.

More than two weeks later, after returning from a family trip to Honduras, Nabozny was ordered to report to Ford's labor office. His union bargaining representative from the United Auto Workers was waiting for him.

Nabozny's own surveillance footage showed him trying to pay

What happened next, as Nabozny told the New York Post, reads like a scene from a corporate nightmare. His union rep broke the news bluntly: "This is not good. The company wants to terminate you." Nabozny asked what for. The answer: "For theft."

Ford had reviewed surveillance footage from the kiosk area. Nabozny recounted what the footage showed, and it did not exactly paint a picture of a man committing a crime.

"It showed me talking to someone and then when I was done speaking, it shows me grabbing a Milky Way off the shelf, looking at the ingredients, and putting it back. I grabbed two different snacks, Doritos and Ritz Crackers with cheese. Then it shows me going to the kiosk and scanning those two items. It shows me pulling my debit card out of my pocket, tapping it and waiting for it to register."

A Ford company representative at the meeting acknowledged the footage appeared to show Nabozny had attempted to pay. But the company's position was rigid. As Nabozny recounted the representative's words: "Even though it looks like you purchased it after you left, the process timed out, so it's considered theft."

Nabozny said he had no idea the transaction failed. "I was not aware that the transaction did not go through until the 27th," he said, referring to April 27th, the day Ford told him he was being fired.

A $40-an-hour worker cashed out his 401(k) over a bag of chips

The consequences of Ford's decision landed fast and hard. Nabozny remains unemployed. To keep his family afloat, he is married with two young sons, he cashed out his 401(k) retirement account, receiving roughly $78,000 after taxes and early-withdrawal penalties ate into the balance.

That is the kind of financial hit that takes years to recover from. And it came because a self-checkout kiosk apparently failed to process an $8 debit card tap.

Nabozny is not making threats or filing public lawsuits. He is asking Ford and the UAW to fix what he considers a straightforward wrong. Firing decisions that end careers deserve more scrutiny than the ones that govern employees caught stealing from coworkers, especially when the worker's own employer admits the video shows him trying to pay.

"I have no hatred towards Ford Motor Company or the United Auto Workers. I just want them to do what's right."

He directed pointed criticism at his own union representation. "My union rep should have stood up and did their job," Nabozny said. "They should have never let me go."

Workers have complained about Aramark kiosks for a long time

Nabozny's case is not an isolated incident. At least four other workers from Nabozny's division have been fired over alleged snack thefts from the same type of self-checkout kiosks. Workers have long complained about the Aramark-operated machines malfunctioning, failed transactions, double charges, frozen screens, and missing receipts.

The pattern raises an obvious question: if the kiosks are known to malfunction, why is Ford treating every failed transaction as employee theft?

The most striking earlier case involved Kurt Kromm, a Ford electrician fired after a kiosk appeared to show he failed to pay $1.95 for a package of Grandma's Chocolate Chip Cookies during an overnight shift. Kromm said he was treating low blood sugar caused by diabetes. He later found the $1.95 charge on his bank statement, proof he had, in fact, paid. Ford reinstated him with approximately $33,000 in back wages. Kromm declined to return to the company and retained legal counsel.

The Detroit Free Press reported that at least three Michigan Assembly workers fired over alleged snack thefts have been reinstated after investigations cleared them. Those reinstatements suggest Ford's own review process eventually reached the right conclusion, but only after workers endured the stress and financial damage of losing their jobs first.

Workplace termination decisions carry real weight, whether they involve controversial firings at real estate firms or assembly workers accused of pocketing a bag of chips. The difference is that Nabozny has surveillance footage and a company admission working in his favor, and he still lost his job.

Ford and Aramark acknowledge the kiosk problems but have not rehired Nabozny

A Ford spokesperson told the Post that the company is "aware there have been some issues raised regarding the kiosk functionality in some limited cases" and is "working with Aramark to review these situations." Ford also said it has invested in upgrading the self-serve kiosks.

Aramark previously stated it is "reviewing the instances in question" and remains focused on operating "with integrity and accountability."

Both statements amount to corporate boilerplate. Neither company has commented on Nabozny's specific case. Neither has explained why a worker whose own surveillance footage shows him scanning items and tapping a debit card was treated as a thief rather than a customer who got caught by a glitchy machine.

Nabozny put the stakes plainly. Companies that expect employees to accept the consequences of workplace conduct rules should hold themselves to the same standard when their own equipment fails.

"I've spent thousands of dollars in this store. I have two little kids. I'm married. I've worked there for nine years. I'm not going to jeopardize my livelihood and my ability to take care of my family over two bags of chips."

Journalist Phoebe Wall Howard first reported Nabozny's firing in her Substack newsletter "Shifting Gears." Since then, the story has drawn wider attention, and for good reason. A company that fires a nine-year employee over a kiosk malfunction, while its own footage shows the man tried to pay, has a credibility problem that no corporate statement can fix.

Open questions Ford still has not answered

Several questions remain unresolved. Did Nabozny's bank records show a pending charge or declined transaction from the kiosk? Has Nabozny filed a formal grievance through the UAW or pursued legal action? How many total Ford workers across all plants have been fired over alleged snack thefts? And what specific kiosk upgrades has Ford invested in, and have they been implemented at the Michigan Assembly Plant where these firings keep happening?

Ford and Aramark have had time to answer these questions. Their silence speaks for itself.

When a company admits its equipment has problems, admits the footage shows a worker trying to pay, fires him anyway over $8, and then issues a vague statement about "reviewing situations", the worker is not the one whose integrity is in question.