Thread: 7-ll Clerk blames firing on illegals debate

Article published Aug 6, 2007
Clerk blames firing on illegals debate

August 6, 2007
http://www.washingtontimes.com/apps/pbc ... 60046/1001

By Valerie Richardson - DENVER — Not only did Bruno Kirchenwitz's U.S. Border Patrol baseball cap help get him fired, it almost got him shot.

Mr. Kirchenwitz, 54, was dismissed from his part-time job at 7-Eleven in Basalt after he was threatened by two Hispanic men who are suspected of later pumping five bullets into the store.

Mr. Kirchenwitz, who left work less than an hour before the shooting, was terminated by Southland Corp., which owns the 7-Eleven chain of convenience stores, for violating the company's "non-confrontation policy."

He contends he was fired for his views on illegal immigration and seeks a lawyer to sue Southland on his behalf.

"I want to put the hurt on their pocketbook because that's all they care about, apparently," Mr. Kirchenwitz said.

The June 26 episode transformed him into a kind of folk hero on talk radio and within the secure-borders movement.

Mr. Kirchenwitz made a dozen appearances on KHOW-AM's "The Peter Boyles Show" in Denver. His backers call for a boycott of 7-Eleven. He even has his own song, "Bruno's Theme," sung to the tune of Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven."

Mr. Kirchenwitz wasn't wearing his U.S. Border Patrol hat on the night of the shooting.

"I never wear that hat to work, but I ride the bus a lot, and people see me with it," he said.

The men evidently recognized him. "These guys said, 'You're the guy who wears that hat, right?' " Mr. Kirchenwitz said. "I said, 'Yeah.' I thought they were joking at first, so I said, 'If you like my hat, you're going to love my T-shirt.' "

The shirt depicts a sombrero-wearing Hispanic and reads: "Jesus is my gardener." At that point, he said, the conversation turned ugly as the men began to threaten him, asking him when he got off work and saying they would come back and beat him up.

When Mr. Kirchenwitz left work at 10:15 p.m., he tucked a knife into the sleeve of his jacket, just in case. Forty-five minutes later, someone fired five shots into the 7-Eleven window with an M-1 rifle.

No one was hurt, though there were several customers present, including a family with a child. Police issued an arrest warrant for one of the men, Richard Ramirez, an illegal alien who had been deported before by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.

Basalt Police Chief Keith Ikeda said the department identified the second man, who is living in Colorado legally, though no warrant is issued for his arrest.

Mr. Kirchenwitz said he was rattled by his close call with the shooting, but even more so when he received a call from 7-Eleven's national headquarters.

"They said that because of an 'egregious customer interaction,' we've decided to terminate you," he said. "My store manager didn't even know. Now they're saying I provoked retaliation that night."

Margaret Chabris, spokeswoman for 7-Eleven, said Mr. Kirchenwitz was fired for breaking company policy the night of the shooting, as well as for "other issues that we learned about as we were going through the process."

"He violated 7-Eleven's non-confrontation policy. He was trained in not confronting customers, in treating customers with respect," Mrs. Chabris said. "It had nothing to do with the First Amendment or immigration or any of those things."

Mr. Kirchenwitz insists he did nothing that night to antagonize the two men.

An immigrant himself — he moved here from Germany in 1954 — Mr. Kirchenwitz said the experience made him a man with a mission.

"This is going to be my new hobby from now on," he said. "I'm going to see what I can do to send every single illegal alien back home."

William/ALIPAC:
How about personally contacting Bruno or at least send him information on our group with an invitation to join?

Originally Posted by zeezil

William/ALIPAC:
How about personally contacting Bruno or at least send him information on our group with an invitation to join?

It would be great to hear from someone who went through is tragic but not last incident over illegal immigration in this country!

Maybe he can have some insight on steps he has taken to reduce the immigration problems and maybe we can help him take more steps!!!

our cause woudl get much more support if acrticles and information were accurate. We sound much more intelligent when we are accurate. an M-1 is a .30 caliber not a 30 mm. 30mm is BIG. I realize that it isnt a huge deal but any discrepency indicates lack of education.

Perhaps information about whether Bruno Kirchenwitz's cause is a legitimate one, and whether it has been taken up by any anti-illegal immigration groups within Colorado, could be obtained from one of the following organizations:

CAIR-Colorado Alliance for Immigration Reform
"Contact CAIR" on left hand side of home page
http://www.cairco.org

Sovereignty Colorado
describes itself as "like the Minuteman Project"
"Comments" on left hand side of home page
http://www.sovereigntycolorado.com

Originally Posted by countryboyaustin

our cause woudl get much more support if acrticles and information were accurate. We sound much more intelligent when we are accurate. an M-1 is a .30 caliber not a 30 mm. 30mm is BIG. I realize that it isnt a huge deal but any discrepency indicates lack of education.

HAHA they said 30mm??? Apache helicopters shoot that! There can take out lightly armored cars and tanks!!!

Originally Posted by zeezil

William/ALIPAC:
How about personally contacting Bruno or at least send him information on our group with an invitation to join?

We are trying to reach him because we would like to send him a check to help him and his wife through this tough time. It is our understanding that they were both homeless and living in a tent when this all went down.

W

I have heard that he took the 7-11 clerk as a second job to make ends meet and because they at least had at least some semblence of an employee health plan.

http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=56604

Originally Posted by ALIPAC

Originally Posted by zeezil

William/ALIPAC:
How about personally contacting Bruno or at least send him information on our group with an invitation to join?

We are trying to reach him because we would like to send him a check to help him and his wife through this tough time. It is our understanding that they were both homeless and living in a tent when this all went down.

W

This talk-radio host (Peter Boyles) may know how to contact him if you are still interested.

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/l ... 27,00.html

Advertisement
Home › News › Local
Lie-detector test: Clerk 'telling the truth' in Border Patrol spat

Bruno Kirchenwitz says he was fired for stance on immigration.STORY

By Rosa Ramirez and Alan Gathright, Rocky Mountain News
July 27, 2007
The 7-Eleven clerk who was fired after a bullet-riddled dispute over his U.S. Border Patrol cap is "telling the truth" when he says he didn't fuel the clash.
The canned clerk, Bruno Kirchenwitz, passed a lie-detector test indicating he did not instigate the clash with two Hispanic men angered by the cap he wore off the job to protest illegal immigration, Denver talk-radio host Peter Boyles announced on 630 KHOW-AM today.

"Bruno is telling the truth!" declared Boyles, an anti-illegal immigration crusader, whose station footed the bill for the polygraph test.
The test results spurred KHOW callers to demand a boycott of 7-Eleven for canning Kirchenwitz after the June 26 incident when a sniper fired five shots at the Basalt store 45 minutes after the men confronted him at the counter. Kirchenwitz left work shortly before the shooting happened.

Boyles also blasted Basalt Police Chief Keith Ikeda who was publicly quoted saying that Kirchenwitz told the men "bring it on" — a challenge that ex-clerk flatly denied making.

"7-Eleven, Basalt (police) chief, you've got problems," Boyles warned.

Kirchenwitz said 7-Eleven officials told him that he had "invited these two gang bangers to meet me after work because I wanted to fight them, which is totally untrue. I have nothing to hide," the fired clerk told the Rocky.

A 7-Eleven Inc. official, however, insisted Kirchenwitz wasn't terminated because of his political views.

Margaret Chabris, a spokeswoman for 7-Eleven Inc. in Dallas, said Kirchenwitz was dismissed for violating company rules prohibiting employees from engaging in confrontations with customers.

"He wasn't fired for his political position. It has nothing to do with that or his views on illegal immigration," Chabris said.

Yet, she added that Kirchenwitz confirmed with police that "the incident that happened that particular night when he was having confrontational words with whoever these customers were and saying that he was going to meet them in the parking lot."

7-Eleven officials' interviews with Kirchenwitz's co-workers and feedback from store customers "raised other customer service issues that were concerning to us," Chabris added. She said she couldn't discuss details of the personnel matter.

But Kirchenwitz stressed that he only joked and chuckled and the men were the aggressors.

"The only thing I said to those guys was, 'If you like my hat, you're going to love my T-shirt,' " Kirchenwitz said on KHOW. He was referring to his fondness for a T-shirt showing a sombrero-wearing Hispanic that reads: "Jesus is my gardener."

"I'm a people person. I have don't have negative customer interactions," he said, adding that he repeatedly received good job reviews from 7-Eleven.

Chabris said 7-Eleven has no involvement in the polygraph test.

"That's got nothing to do with 7-Eleven anymore. He's no longer an employee," she said.

But KHOW callers today were praising Kirchenwitz as as working-class American hero — while condemning 7-Eleven for "catering" to illegal immigrant customers.

"I just wanted to let Bruno know that, me and my family, he's got out support," said a caller named Ted from Erie. "I want to make 7-Eleven an example, because this case has really angered me. I want to start a boycott against 7-Eleven. Hit them in the pocket book."

The police chief has said two persons of interest have been identified and contacted in connection with the shooting.

"The investigation continues," Ikeda said. "We are very confident there will be felony charges resulting from this case."

Police are not releasing the names of the two persons of interest, but Ikeda said both men are "from around this area."