Verizon Employee Gets Suspended from Work After Rescuing a Cat With His Work Equipment

Cats sometimes get themselves in situations that they can’t get out of all by themselves. While they have no problem climbing trees, for example, sometimes it takes a firefighter to get the cat out of the tree once the cat realizes just how high up he is.

One cat in Port Richmond, Pennsylvania, found herself not up a tree, exactly, but on top of a telephone pole. The poor, scared kitty, who is named Princess Momma, didn’t know how to get down.

Amanda Fairchild Boyce was the first person to notice that Princess Momma was stuck on the telephone pole. This was around 10:30pm on a Friday. She told her neighbors, the cat’s owners, who reached out to firefighters and animal rescue organizations, desperate to try to find someone to help their cat get down from the telephone pole.

Twelve hours later, Sandy McLeish, another neighbor and an animal activist, found a Verizon employee named Steve German who offered to help them out. CBS Philly reporter Steve Lindsay captured the cat rescue on camera.

While you might think that Verizon would use the video as publicity for their company, they instead responded by suspending German for three weeks, saying that his actions put him in danger.

Verizon spokesperson Rich Young said, “We’re committed and responsible for keeping our employees and customers safe while working in a particular area.”

In response, the Port Richmond community set up a GoFundMe page to raise money for German. They surpassed their original goal in just 2 days.

The community also created social media posts to spread the word about German’s heroic actions and Verizon’s surprisingly negative reaction.

Watch the video below for more on this story and to see German bravely rescue Princess Momma from the telephone pole.

 

Do you think Verizon should have suspended German?