Why Was a Beloved Custodian Fired?

Francisca Trigueros has worked as a custodian for the psychology department at the University of Southern California, through Aramark, for two decades. The Los Angeles Times reported that she was recently fired and that faculty members and others don’t like the explanation—she was fired for allegedly stealing a backpack with cash in it, but she denies this. Trigueros said that she found the backpack and the office where she would have turned it in was empty, so she was saving the backpack, not stealing it. Psychology professors believe her.

“After an investigation involving the police and our HR team, the person in question was found to be in violation of our policies regarding lost and found items and is no longer with the company,” Aramark spokesman Chris Collom said in an email.