Tollbooth worker fired for paying driver's fee

Vladislav Samsonov was fired for paying a customer's $5 toll. (WBBH)

He paid the toll, then paid the price.

A Florida tollbooth worker who had been on the job for nearly three decades was fired for paying a driver’s $5 toll, according to WBBH.

Vladislav Samsonov said that when he realized he charged a tractor-trailer driver too little earlier this month, he paid the difference out of his own pocket.

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

— Vladislav Samsonov

“In my eyes there was no crime committed, I just helped someone out,” the Boca Grande toll collector told WBBH.

That view was not shared by his bosses. Samsonov, a 77-year-old military veteran, said he was initially handed a reduced schedule as punishment, but he declined to take fewer days.

“If I can’t be trusted for five days, how can I be trusted for two days?” said Samsonov, who added that he had been asked not to pay customers’ tolls before, but had never formally been written up.

The Gasparilla Island Bridge Authority told WBBH they do not discuss personnel matters.

Samsonov said he will now look for volunteer work, but will miss the people he used to meet at the booth.

“After 29 years, you can’t help it,” he said. “I gave children suckers 20 years ago. Now I’m giving those children suckers for their children.”