Best Buy Will Not Destroy The Rare Nintendo Robot That An Employee Risked His Job To Save
The employee had posted his story on Reddit, explaining that a customer brought in R.O.B. as part of a Nintendo Deluxe Set to be recycled through the store's "Renew Blue" program.
The employee wanted to save it, but was told by his store manager that if he took it home, he'd be fired.
Fortunately, the story has a happy ending for little R.O.B.
Instead of being recycled, the robot has been retrieved from the store and is on its way to Best Buy's headquarters for all to see.
"We are in the process of retrieving the robot and gaming system from the store so that we may put it on display here at our corporate headquarters in Richfield," Best Buy spokesman Jon Sandler told us. "A bit of nostalgia that our employees and visitors alike, are sure to enjoy!"
"We recycle virtually any consumer electronic device out there, but as you can imagine an item like this is fairly unusual and we can see why it captivated our employee’s imagination," Best Buy senior specialist Jeremy Baier explained to us.
The employee decided to put his job on the line to try to save R.O.B. — a short-lived Nintendo accessory that has become pretty rare over the years — and the rest of the set.
Boxed-up Nintendo Deluxe Sets seem to be running for around $400 now, judging by the prices on eBay.
He packed away the box in a hidden part of the warehouse to buy himself some time.
"I tried everything I could at a store level to get the OK to take it ... but to no avail," he wrote.
"So now the gloves are off. I'm not letting him pull the plug on my Nintendo baby that is on life support, hidden from bad corporate policy."
His story went nuts on Reddit, getting more than 5,000 comments from folks eager to give their advice on how to save poor R.O.B. and the system.
What's going to happen to the employee who posted his story?
Well, we're not sure. He voluntarily posted updates of everything he did (with photos) in the Reddit thread, though fortunately he didn't steal the to-be-recycled robot or system.
Best Buy explained that it doesn't publicly comment on its workers for privacy reasons, but did say that the sequence of events is currently being reviewed to ensure that the company's policies were followed.