Everyone knows there is nothing in this world more frustrating than standing before a vending machine, hungry and hopeless, as the candy bar or bag of pretzels you have just purchased becomes lodged precariously, refusing to drop. When this happens, most of us try banging on the glass or shaking the machine back and forth, but that never works, so we walk away, sputtering in anger and wallowing in defeat.
But some other people have access to resources that could prove rather helpful in this dire situation. Robert McKevitt, for example, used a giant forklift to shake free a candy bar that had gotten stuck in one of the vending machines at the Iowa factory where he worked, the Des Moines Register reports. The method proved successful in the sense that he indeed freed the candy, but unsuccessful in the sense that he ended up getting fired, according to the newspaper.
The 27-year-old worker maneuvered an 8,000-pound forklift toward the uncooperative vending machine, lifted it two feet off the warehouse floor, and then let it drop, according to state unemployment compensation records. He tried this strategy a few more times until several candy bars eventually came loose, dropping through the chute.
In a recently-released ruling, a judge denied McKevitt’s claim for unemployment benefits, citing a “willful disregard for his employer’s interests.” But McKevitt later told the Des Moines Register that he never lifted and dropped the machine, only that he used the forklift to move it back against the wall: “That machine was trouble,” he said. “They fired me, and now I hear they have all new vending machines there.”
So next time your candy or chips get stuck, you might just want to walk away hungry.