Pizza firing wins online contest

Monday, September 5, 2005; Posted: 11:11 a.m. EDT (15:11 GMT)

SAN FRANCISCO, California (AP) -- A computer engineer who lost his job because he ate two pieces of pepperoni pizza has been named the winner of an offbeat Internet contest that solicited stories about outrageous firings.

A panel of Silicon Valley judges picked Jim Garrison's strange tale from more than 1,000 entries submitted during the past month. The reward: a free Caribbean cruise.

Garrison, 39, prevailed over some tough competition.

The runners-up included a furniture mover who got fired after he and a co-worker were caught fencing with some adult sex toys found in a customer's bedroom; a worker who misunderstood a manager's instructions to send some sensitive data to microfilm and e-mailed it to a "Michael Finn" instead; and a warehouse worker found doing perverse things with the prosthetics made by his employer.

Garrison, who lives in Highlands Ranch, Colorado, said he never thought he would be rewarded for getting fired. Then again, he never dreamed he would be fired after he ate two of the six pieces of pepperoni pizza left over from a company meeting.

What he didn't know is that several other employees had already worked out a plan to take the leftover pizza home with them.

When they discovered one-third of the leftover pizza pie had been eaten, the employees reported Garrison to management, ultimately leading to his firing last November -- a month after he ate the food.

a worker who misunderstood a manager's instructions to send some sensitive data to microfilm and e-mailed it to a "Michael Finn" instead;