A Florida Walmart assistant manager who jumped into the back of a beer thief's pickup truck and went on a 15-mile ride has been fired from his job.
Mike Dawson, a manager at a Titusville store, was fired following the wild ride that reached speeds of 90 miles per hour last week, WESH reported.
Police said two men stole more than a dozen cases of beer from the store then tried to leave in the truck on Friday. Dawson went to take down the truck's license plate number but thought the driver was going to back over him so he jumped in the truck bed.
"When I realized how close I was, I jumped in the back so they didn't run me over," Dawson said.
After riding for several miles, Dawson got the attention of another driver, who pointed a gun at the driver and got him to slow down so Dawson could escape.
The driver, identified as 24-year-old Joseph Michael Long (below), was later arrested and charged with armed robbery, grand theft and kidnapping. He was being held at the Brevard County Jail and it was unknown whether he has an attorney.
A spokesman for Walmart said Dawson violated store policy and could have just taken down the license plate number, WESH reported. The spokesman said Dawson had three perfect scores on training sessions on store safety, so they fired him for violating those policies.
