Army veteran fired from CVS after trying to stop robbery

When two suspects tried robbing a Maryland CVS on Friday, Army veteran Joe Morici sprang into action.

And it cost him his job.

Morici, who served seven years in the Army, including a stint in Afghanistan, was fired from his management job at a Beltsville CVS because he intervened and tried to catch the men, FOX5 reported.


But Morici said his reactions were purely based on instinct when two men tried robbing the CVS pharmacy during his shift.

He quickly told cashiers to call 911 and helped an elderly man out of the store before locking the doors, preventing the suspects from leaving. Then he confronted them.

“The two kids ran into the door, which was closed now, and Joe got one of them and had him,” Chick Hernandez, a customer in the store at the time, told FOX5. “The kid, he had said to his partner, ‘Shoot him.’…And then Joe said, ‘I’ve been in the military far too long. You don’t have anything.’”

It turned out there was no gun, though one of the suspects held a screwdriver.

“I don’t really know that they didn’t really have one,” Morici said. “I just kind of assumed.”

Morici grabbed the screwdriver, but eventually the men got away.

When Morici’s boss arrived, however, Morici said he was told he was being terminated because of his actions.

“My boss, when he came in to deliver the news, he was sick to his stomach,” Morici said. “He didn’t want to, but he didn’t have a choice.”

In a statement to FOX5, CVS said it would “not comment on specific security procedures or polices as we do not want to undermine them.”

Morici said since news of his heroics went public he’s received numerous job offers and interview opportunities. He’s also applied for a position with the Prince George’s County Police Department.

“My Facebook has been blowing up from people all over the country just thanking me and reposting it,” Morici said. “I’ve got people from Wichita, Kansas to the Philippines. People back home are calling me. It blew up way bigger than I ever thought it would.”