Rupcich v. United Food & Commercial Workers International Union

KANNE, Circuit Judge.

Plaintiff Patricia Rupcich was fired from her job of twenty-five years at one of Defendant Jewel Food Stores, Inc.’s stores in January 2012 for wheeling a twenty-five pound bag of birdseed in a grocery cart past the last cash register without paying for it. Rupcich said that she wheeled the birdseed past the last cash register by accident, as she rushed home to care for her sick grandson after her shift ended. That this may in fact be true is irrelevant, according to Jewel, because it claims to define “misappropriation” and theft to be strict liability violations that do…