My manager fired me for stealing $2,300 from the register. My 11-year-old daughter was the first person who noticed the hand in the video wasn’t mine.

I work at a convenience store outside Beckley, West Virginia. I’d been there six years, mostly evenings, because the hours fit around my daughter, Kaylee. My manager, Brent, said… he had video of me taking the money at 9:14 p.m. He said it in front of the whole shift, like he was reading a number off a receipt.

I kept thinking about that number. 9:14. The clock over the coffee machine had been seven minutes slow since March, and I’d told Brent about it twice. I remember because he laughed the first time and said, “It’s close enough.” I guess I was looking for anything that didn’t fit.

The video showed my register. My uniform. Someone reaching into the till.

Brent had me meet him in the back office after the dinner rush. The other cashier, Devon, was counting lottery slips at the counter, close enough to hear us.…