A former Virginia Beach 7-11 employee claims after he was kissed and assaulted by another man last month, he was fired for being gay.
Bradley Kindrick told police the incident happened around 2:30 a.m. when the assailant walked in and started flirting with him. The two then walked back toward the bathroom where, Kindrick says, the man grabbed and slammed him up against the wall, then forcibly kissed him.
“I was scared to death,” Kindrick told NBC affiiate, WAVY. “I was scared that something was going to go further… that he was going to do something really bad to me.”
A few days later, Kindrick said he was fired by store management, who claimed he was drunk on the job. Kendrick denies the allegations and maintains that he was fired for being gay — something 7-11 denies.
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“I think because I am openly homosexual I think that they think maybe somebody would come in and do it again,” Kindrick said. “I think that they made up a reason to let me go because they didn’t want stuff like that happening at that store, and they felt like if they kept me, something like that would happen.”
Though Virginia’s discrimination laws don’t cover sexual orientation or gender identity, 7-11 says that it does not discriminate against its employees. Meanwhile, police are currently searching for the kissing bandit and anyone with info is encouraged to contact Crime Line at 1-888-LOCK-U-UP.
(h/t: The Raw Story)
theluckyone
“The two then walked back toward the bathroom” – Are you kidding me?
pierre
@theluckyone: Seriously. Happens ALL the time……
ecllips
Haha, well he sure didn’t need to walk back toward the bathroom with the man. All the clerks need to do is point to where the bathrooms are if someone asks.
lab
just look for another job…and grow up. you talk/flirt with with a customer and then walk towards the toilet with him and then are horrified and scared of the “really bad” thing the guy was going to do to you? bye bye
yaoming
This guy looks like a teenagers. Do teenagers today call themselves “homosexual”? (Did they ever?)
Dixie Rect
He got fired for goofing off work to play with some guy in the bathroom, then tries to play victim once he’s busted. Waaaaaaaah! Tacky all around!
Jamal
Scared? Yeah right, he’s just trying to get his job back.
sirald66
He said he walked to the back to get help. The news/store says he walked towards the bathroom. Is the backroom past the bathroom? The news didn’t say. Locking yourself in the bathroom would also be good protection if you think you are in danger; there are other ways to see this.
cdinsf
This guy kinda looks like a young Boy George (without the make up, of course). Just an observation.
dc.196434
seriously dude – i was feeling for u until i read the whole story- u both freely walked back towards the bathroom and then the guy kisses u and gropes u – you should have never reported this to the police or 7-11. by looking at your pic- u aint all that- you should be thankful anyone wanted to kiss u. Go get a like.
josh453060
I wonder if Lauren Compton considers it was her ‘decision’ to be black…
Victor_in_PA
Yep, when you are at work, you work. If you want to have sex while you’re at work, then you need to be a sex worker and not a counter person at 7-11. You don’t head for the bathroom with a customer at 2:30 AM when you’re supposed to be working and then whine when it doesn’t work out like the perfect little scene from the continually running porn in your head. The real world is a lot more dangerous and RARELY works out like it does in a video. This is real life. It’s not a reality show or a porn video.
Honestly, this is why straight people think we’re so sexually irresponsible. He’s just lucky there weren’t 5 more of them outside just waiting to beat him to death for a few bucks. It only takes one stupid mistake to end up dead. And, sorry, but you deserved to be fired for not doing your job (or, in Virginia, for being gay since there are no legal protections – another reason not to trick at work). You don’t get to play the gay card when you’re the one who fucked up.
technicolornina
I used to work at Circle K, and 1) our back office was down a hall, past the bathroom 2) I was told multiple times by my boss, her boss, and our district field boss that when I worked third shift I should always carry a phone in my pocket and, if threatened, try to escape into the BATHROOM–not the back office, which was twice as far away and would involve a run down a narrow hallway bristling with backstock (the good: I could have shoved it down behind me to create a barrier. The bad: what if it fell in front of me?). The bathroom had a bulletproof steel door and was specifically designed to be a shelter in case of miscellaneous Bad Stuff Going Down.
All of you people making snide comments about the bathroom might want to remember this. Was there audio? Do we know that the unknown customer didn’t start getting possessive, threatening, homophobic (I know he proceeded to kiss the clerk, but we’ve all heard the repeated mantra, I’m sure: “rape is about power, not sex”) or creepy? Do we know that this young man didn’t intend to lock himself in for protection (if you start running, you’re more likely to be attacked because assailants will assume you’ve pushed the panic button or are planning on calling the police)?
Too many questions, not enough answers to be making stupid jokes about his intentions, and until y’all have worked in a gas station, you won’t know what those questions are (my first one, for example, would be “did this customer come on foot or by car?” On foot = he’s more likely to be drunk, stoned, or flat-out out of his mind; I used to hate getting third-shift customers on foot).
mpwaite
Okay… So you flirted with the guy then walked back to the bathroom with him??? REALLY???!!! What were you expecting??? Now if they guy would have just come out of nowhere and kissed you; THAT would be assault; but Dude, you led him on; walked him to the bathroom; then freaked when HE got his signals mixed???!! And heres the kicker… YOU’RE CO-WORKER WAS THERE???!!!… I agree with everyone else… You should just let this one go and find a new job.
LeNair Xavier
@technicolornina: Obviously, you’re too biased. You are reading a TOTALLY DIFFERENT story than everyone else.
Who cares if there’s audio? In part of the article where it says, “The two then walked back toward the bathroom…” is based on what HE SAID TO THE POLICE. Therefore, comments about the bathroom are NOT snide remarks. They’re justified.
If you would have been more responsible, good for you. But that’s not the case with this guy. He needs to own up to his bad judgement, instead of playing the “me-forever-the-victim gay card”. For eventually, real claims of discrimination are going to be looked upon as the person crying “wolf”. That is, if it hasn’t started already.
MK Ultra
This story is kind of comical.
“We flirted then I went to the bathroom with him while on the job”
followed by;
“Then my boss fired me. I don’t know why. Probably because I’m gay”.
WHAT?
Cognitive dissonance or just an idiot?
Cee
@theluckyone: loll A news report I just watched on YouTube said the police reported the man walked toward the bathroom and the clerk followed lollol
If you’re going to lie to the police about an assault after being fired don’t tell the police you followed the man to the bathroom and were subsequently assaulted lmao
sirald66
@technicolornina: Thank you for being a voice of reason.
technicolornina
@LeNair Xavier: Audio is important because WE DON’T KNOW WHAT THE CUSTOMER SAID IF THERE IS NO AUDIO. Allow me to present you two different scenarios, both of which happened at my job:
Customer one: Shares a story with me about his daughter, who is learning to target-shoot. During the course of the conversation I mention learning to shoot with a BB gun when I was ten. He chuckles and pushes his suit coat out of the way to display a firearm in a holster on his belt, and says “oh, no, I’m teaching her with one of these. If she’s got to shoot to help herself I want her to know how to do it with a real gun.”
Customer two: Attempts to use a credit card that isn’t his for a $70 sale of gas and cigarettes. I tell him I can’t process a card if he doesn’t have matching identification. He slides his hands under the tails of his suit coat, displaying a firearm in a holster and says “Well, I don’t want to make any trouble” with a pretty clear “but, uh, I got a gun and you don’t . . . . ” in the tone.
On camera, with no audio, BOTH of these men threatened me–or neither of them did. Both were in conversational poses, and I lived in a right-to-carry-concealed-and-open state. (That second guy, by the way? Card was stolen, as I suspected, but he still got off on threatening me because he swore he didn’t brandish his weapon and guess what: NO AUDIO.)
What the customer said makes all the difference.
TrekBear
I can’t really blame the store for firing him – not because he’s gay, but because he left his post during an overnight shift. Even if there was another employee there to handle the register, this guy should have stayed where he was – he had no business satisfying personal urges while on the clock and not on break or “lunch.” If he wanted to meet up with the customer, he could have made arrangements to meet outside the store.
Dwayne420
I read the the linked stories. All or most of the answers should be on the store security tape they have…body language should tell allot of what both guys were up too.
murphy0071
Most of the commentators are obviously anti-homosexual ignorant low lifes. When working in a 7-11 you have to also watch the customers who like you low lives don’t thing anything about stealing and if not a customer cannot use the restroom. To suppose that there was a sexual probably sexual tryst is no more than delusional thinking. I smell a very good law suit against 7-11. Go for the gusto and sue those bastards.
brokeback gypsy
I am sure this kid was terrified, but he is likely mostly upset because the guy hasn’t called him back yet. Bitches.
Pete
let’s see. he was on-the-clock behind the counter and he abandoned his post and left the til unattended to have a bit ‘o merry in the WC (how old-school!)
I don’t think he was fired for being gay.
the other Greg
“Kindrick said he was fired by store management, who claimed he was drunk on the job.”
People here keep bringing up “leaving his post” etc. but that’s not the ostensible reason he was fired. Why did they think he was drunk?
sirald66
I expect he will qualify for unemployment. A fair judge will see the claim of drinking was used conveniently after an unrelated incident. I see it possible the guy did tend to drink/party and wasn’t an attentive staffer, but that wasn’t on record previously.
balehead
He’s now opening a restaurant in Morris, Manitoba as we speak…..
dannybear_mn
@theluckyone: I know, huh? lol
Kwei
Need clarification on what “walked back toward the bathroom” means exactly
Will L
“The two then walked back toward the bathroom” does not sound like he was being chased or threatened. As others have stated, it sounds to me like he got caught tricking on the job. He wasn’t fired for “being gay.” I’d have fired him, too. Stupid low life whore.
dbmyers
@technicolornina: Good on you. You seem to be the only one commenting here who thinks there are too many questions and not enough answers to start condemning this man and making assumptions that he was planing on going to the washroom (for sex)with his assaulter. Whatever happened to innocent until proven guilty? I will not judge this person until I hear his answers to these raised questions. How presumptive you commenters are.
DOFEK
The existence of Christianity by itself is a assault no humanity!. AdamHomo
Batchain
Another whacky faggot? Yeah, so rare! If it was going to be claimed to be an “assault” that’s all the complaint should not have included “kissing” and “walking” to – of all places – the bathroom. If anything here sounds *funny* it’s like hearing about a “slow, cruise-by shooting”! And now add alcohol to this mix?
If there actually was anti-gay sentiment involved in his firing, Ms. Kendrick blew the shit out of that as well as any case he might otherwise had.
tdx3fan
@dc.196434: I highly doubt he freely reported it. This reads, to me, like the guy was about to go get it on in the bathroom and the store manager saw this when they were reviewing the camera footage, so they fired him for abandoning his actual duties or working in the store.
sirald66
Shameful. The comments here are worthy of Perez Hilton style trash, not a concerned community.
tdx3fan
@technicolornina: Where are the charges that he pressed for sexual assault mentioned? Funny, I do not see any. Hmm! Makes you think! Maybe it is you that is reading into this.
tdx3fan
@technicolornina: Audio does not matter… Body language shows everything you need to know about the story. The way that a man looks when he reaches for his gun in story 1 and in story 2 are so very different that it will easily show the difference on camera with no audio.
Eric Auerbach
LOL@this moron. You were going to fuck a stranger in the bathroom of your workplace, and you think the reason you got fired is because you’re gay?
tdx3fan
@murphy0071: Wow, way to play your own victim card. I think this stopped being about the subject matter and started being about you. Did you miss the part where he was openly flirting with the guy? That was probably from his police report.
technicolornina
@tdx3fan: First of all, over half of all sexual assaults go unreported (I’ve been assaulted several times and refused to report for fear of further endangering my own safety, you wanna try and tell me it didn’t happen? Go for it, you won’t be the first one who thinks victim-blaming is classy). Second of all, body language–especially on blurry video surveillance–DOESN’T tell all. In the scenarios I presented, the customers BOTH casually displayed guns–but for different purposes.
If you’ve never seen surveillance video, let me tell you–I was an assistant manager. Reviewing it was part of my job when we suspected theft. At its highest frame rate the video will still be jerky and blurred, and depending on how old your camera setup is (the store I managed at was 10yrs) IT ONLY GETS WORSE. In the store I trained at the cameras were so bad I once mistakenly identified a shoplifter as having “no tattoos,” only for him to be caught–with a tatt that covered his entire bicep. It was half-covered by his shirt and what remained disappeared into his suntan on the video. If you can’t even see the PERSON clearly, small things like facial expression are going to disappear. Your argument is without merit.
Jaroslaw
Thanks technicolorina – you will never convince the know-it-alls here. But thanks for trying. Is it possible the customer asked for item that was in the direction of the bathroom? Is it possible that the police modified the statement or didn’t write down everything Mr. Kindrick said? As in “the customer couldn’t find the peanut butter and I was showing him where it was…it was toward the back of the store, near the bathroom?”
technicolornina
@Jaroslaw: Yup, and then there’s the ever popular “I think that guy just shoved something up his shirt. Can you just sort of walk casually out onto the floor and keep an eye on him without letting him know he’s being watched?” I got shopping-sitter duty quite a lot (especially during Christmas–parents looking for stocking stuffers, not teenagers, were our biggest problem). “Heading back to the bathroom” is a nice, natural excuse–you head back that way, then you “see a problem on a shelf” that needs fixed before you go.
A lot of the people here don’t seem to realize that working in a gas station involves a LOT more than just ringing a register.
iluvcakes
@theluckyone:
OMG I was thinking the same thing!!! Gurl please!!!