Amazon driver quits, abandons van in Michigan. ‘I just couldn’t do it anymore’
A man took to Twitter Monday to announce he was quitting his Amazon job, adding that he left the delivery van — keys still in the ignition — near an intersection in Michigan.
The tweet, posted by Derick Lancaster, 22, has been liked more than 225,000 times and shared more than 25,000 as of Wednesday.
“I quit amazon f--- that driving s--- i left the van on 12 mile and Southfield y’all can have that b--- and it’s full of gas wit the keys in the IGNITION,” the tweet said.
Lancaster later posted that he’d left the van at a Marathon gas station in Lathrup Village and was waiting for a Lyft driver to pick him up.
He said he was shocked his tweets garnered so much attention.
“I didn’t think it would get over 10 million interactions,” he told the Detroit Free Press. “I thought it was going to get more like 50 likes and 20 retweets and call it a day. But, it just touched a lot of people.”
In a statement to WXYZ, Amazon said it has investigated the situation and is “taking appropriate action.”
“This does not reflect the high standards we have for delivery partners,” Amazon said, according to the outlet.
Lancaster said he’d been working for Amazon for five months, starting in the Hazel Park warehouse before changing to delivery, the Detroit News reported. He said he quit because he had enough.
“I’m not encouraging them to but if you fed up you fed up,” he told WXYZ. “It was immature and irresponsible on my end. At the same time, enough is enough.”
Lancaster finally decided to take the plunge after missing his sister’s birthday party, according to WXYZ, adding that he regularly worked roughly 12-hour shifts for $15.50 an hour.
“I was making 200-300 stops a day, and I just couldn’t do it anymore,” he told the Detroit News. “I was working from nine in the morning to about 10 at night, and I couldn’t do it anymore.”
And as for the truck? Lancaster said he thinks it was probably returned, telling the outlet there are trackers on the vehicles.
Social media response to his methods have been mixed.
“You know how fed up you gotta be to ditch a truck and walk home?,” one person wrote on Twitter.
“I can’t imagine how selfish someone has to be to abandon a van full of other people’s property with the keys in the ignition and broadcast where it is so people can steal said property and the van itself,” another wrote.
“I’m a trucker and it happens all the time even with the big rigs. Transportation work is rough and thankless,” wrote a third.
“Just my luck my whole shipment in yo truck, groceries clothes and all,” wrote another.
