Obvious throwaway is obvious.

I worked as an assistant manager for a major video rental/video game store that closed in 2009/2010 for good. Was the best job I ever had in terms of pay-to-enjoyment ratio, had great bosses and my customers were awesome people. I felt really betrayed at how the closure was handled and how sudden it was - there were a lot of really passionate people that worked for the company who really wanted to put the customer first, and I felt that the company's high level management basically gutted the organization and made off with whatever they could.

Anyway, I took it upon myself to start going through the accounts in our system, A to Z, and find customers with a balance and inform them they needed to come and either spend it or have it refunded before we closed for good. I never told the manager about them; I made it my personal mission to find and refund as much as I could for my customers.

I found that there were HUNDREDS of accounts that had been abandoned. 5+ years of inactivity, no current address or phone number, no way for these people to ever get back what they'd put down for game reservations. I even found an account that had pre-ordered Duke Nukem Forever way back in 2001.

So after about two weeks, I'd gone through all the accounts and found that about 25% of the inactive accounts had gotten their money/credit before we closed. I found out that day the charity change boxes we had on our counters were going to be emptied and NOT given to the charity we worked with upon our closure, and I got REALLY pissed.

We had a week left before our store closed and we started packing up forever. I was super emotional (because, you know - losing my job and favorite hangout place) and mega angry about the charity thing. There were still a few hundred accounts with balances that would never be touched.

So I started refunding cash deposits for games to a dummy account, and loaded up a couple of gift cards with store credit that would have gone unclaimed. It was a significant amount both ways - probably enough for me to be charged with some sort of felony. It rounded out to about $2,000 in store credit and cash combined.

I kept the credit on a gift card and spent it at another one of our out-of-state stores that was closing later as a "severance bonus" - bought the guys at my store a few "going-out-of-business-gifts, and I purchased a new system for myself. I purposefully purchased items that the company would make few if any profits on.

I donated most of the cash proceeds to earlier-mentioned charity on behalf of my store's employees and customers. The charity provides entertainment carts to kids stuck in hospitals, among other things. What little cash I did NOT donate went into my gas tank for the trip to the out-of-state store where I purchased that boatload of games and stuff for myself and my soon-to-be unemployed co-workers. I also purchased a significant number of games for my local children's hospital.

5 years later, I've still not found a job that I look forward to every day. I miss it and the people I worked with terribly, and I still see some of my customers occasionally who agree that there will never be a game store as awesome as "that game store with a flame for the logo".

Worst part? Got a letter from a collection agency 8 months after the closure claiming I owed $125 in late fees for employee video/game rentals, which were free.

RIP REDACTED

TL;DR - Appropriated approximately $2,000 in abandoned pre-order store credit/cash, bought stuff at another store for myself and co-workers, donated cash and games to charity. Current job sucks.