Fired from job for theft without proof?
wrongful termination attorney Virginia Jul 23, 2026
Location: Virginia, USA I was an assistant store manager at a Target store. I had been very successful in my career and all 60 of my employees and coworkers loved me. I have been with the company for over 2 years with no write ups or performance issues. I worked extremely hard and made my store number 1 in the district for multiple different things. One day I found a wallet someone left in a shopping cart. I picked it up and put it in the lost and found behind the service desk. It is a normal occurrence at a store like this. I just went about my day. 1 month after finding the wallet I'm pulled into a meeting with my boss. Supposedly the person came back for the wallet and we didn't have it. Asset protection pulled the camera footage and saw me picking the wallet up and putting it into the lost and found. My boss accused me of stealing the wallet. He questioned me for 30 minutes while recording me on his phone. I just kept telling him I put it into the lost and found and he kept saying i was lying and was getting angrier every time I denied it. I asked him some questions. Are you accusing me of stealing? No. Is there any proof I stole it? No. Do I need to find a new job? No. The next day I come in and he tells me I'm fired. No reason or anything. Just that it's "involuntary termination". I immediately go to asset protection and ask them why they did that to me. They tell me they didn't want to do it, I shouldn't have been fired, and everyone except for my boss said it was not grounds for termination. They showed me the camera footage from the incident. All it shows is me picking up the wallet, putting it in the lost and found that's slightly off camera, then walking away. The shady part is that in order to terminate an employee, it has to be approved by a 3rd party HR person that doesn't work at the store. This is where proof is verified and they determine whether it's justified. This would not have been approved if my boss was being honest about not having proof. I'm 99% sure he lied to HR about what the cameras saw. My team and coworkers are all very upset about it. Everyone is telling me to sue for wrongful termination and defamation. I legitimately believe he fired me because his ego was hurt. The entire asset protection team was saying that it didn't look like I stole it, and they're professionals at catching theft. Is there anything I can really do about this? Virginia is an at-will state so I know they don't need a reason to fire me. Everyone is telling me to contact an employment attorney but I don't see the point. Should I do it anyway?
