This is bizarre.
The Daily Mail are today reporting that Ray Lambert, father of England and Liverpool striker Rickie Lambert, has been sacked from his job in a Matalan warehouse after he smashed the glass of a vending machine trying to retrieve a £1 coffee that had become lodged in the machine.
A former colleague has suggested Lambert senior is "fuming" after he was immediately fired from the distribution warehouse of UK clothing company Matalan in Knowsley, Liverpool where he has worked since it opened.
It's a joke. Loads of people give that machine a nudge when it doesn’t work properly. Ray’s worked at that warehouse ever since it opened. He had put his money into the vending machine to buy the coffee but the cup got lodged in the machine. He gave it a little shove to try and dislodge it but accidentally broke the glass panel. It wasn’t done with any malice. It had got stuck and he was trying to get it out.
Seems like a clear over-reaction from Matalan to us, but here is what a spokesperson for the clothing retailer had to say:
Matalan takes its responsibility as an employer very seriously and has conducted this dismissal in accordance with the company’s disciplinary policy.
Clearly these people have never used vending machines before. A shocking way to treat a man who would rather stand on his own two feet than live off his son's success.
