Florida Toll Collector Breaks Policy (Again) For Good Deed — Did Employer Take Rules Too Far?

A Florida community is rallying behind a toll collector they believe was unjustly fired for a good deed, though Vladislav “Sam” Samsonov did break the rules.

For 30 years, Samsonov, 77, worked the booth at the Gasparilla Island Bridge, giving out dog bones to pooches and lollipops to kids as they crossed into the Boca Grande Causeway, a spit of land south of Tampa in southwestern Florida, The New York Daily News reported.

“I gave children suckers 20 years ago. Now I’m giving those children suckers for their children,” Samsonov told NBC2.

Following his dismissal, the people who crossed the bridge and saw the friendly toll collector’s face everyday are up in arms. The local paper, the Boca Beacon, called Sam a “Gasparilla Island fixture.”

But Sam did break the rules, and he had been reprimanded before. The bridge authority is not commenting on Vladislav’s firing.

What the Florida toll collector did was this, his daughter Patricia explained on Facebook:

“He broke the rules by putting $5.50 into the cash register from his pocket after he realized he missed a trailer being pulled by a vehicle and wanted his register to balance with the axel counts and was caught on tape putting money from his pocket into the register.”

As Sam himself described the good deed: “In my eyes there was no crime committed, I just helped somebody out. I’d put the six dollars in, I got the six dollars back the next day.”

The bridge authority isn’t saying he committed a crime either, but the act was against policy. The toll collector admitted he had helped pay a driver’s fee from his own pocket from time to time. And his employer had caught him doing it before. He was reprimanded, but had never been disciplined in writing.

This time around, when the toll collector broke the rule again, the authority cut right to the chase and offered a punishment: cutting down his work week from five days to two. The Florida toll collector declined.

His employer said the refusal to accept that punishment was enough to fire Sam, the Daily News added.

“This doesn’t sit well with me, what happened. I’m shocked by the whole firing of him, especially for what it was. It just doesn’t seem right to me at all,” said regular Jason Rice.

So was the firing just? That’s the question many in this Florida community are asking, and his family is looking into whether the bridge authority broke any laws and may be considering legal action.

And, whether or not ue broke policy, the people who’ve gotten used to Vladislav’s face are not happy. People like local business owner Blanche Vedette have poured their hearts out in support of him. Vedette saw Samsonov everyday on her commute to work.

“(He would) ask how our daughter was doing. He was like extended family.I just want him to know how much we really do care about him and how he will be missed.”

Such support has been overwhelming for the Florida man.

“Makes me feel good, makes me want to cry. But bite your tongue and you’ll be ok,” he said. “They were my family.”

[Photo Courtesy YouTube Screengrab]