UPDATE: Hy-Vee Offers to Rehire Disabled Man

UPDATE: Urbandale's Hy-Vee, which received bad publicity coast-to-coast this week, after firing a mentally-diabled man for redeeming 20 cents in bottle deposits that were not his, has offered to rehire him.

Ruth Comer, a spokeswoman for the Hy-Vee corporation, confirmed Thursday morning that Ron Taylor, executive vice president of Hy-Vee sent a message to employees that the company is willing to reinstate Kyle Dowie.

Taylor's memo noted that while the company was within its right to dismiss Dowie for "violating company policies…his departure has led many individuals to mischaracterize our company."

The memo cited Hy-Vee's long history of creating jobs for the mentally and physically disabled.

Dowie's story fueled nationwide outrage. A website of social activists gathered more than 19,000 signatures on a petition seeking his reinstatement.  His story was featured on AOL.com and is on ABC news' national website this morning. 

Stay tuned for more on this story today.

Des Moines Register columnist Rekha Basu trained her sights on a civil rights complaint against Urbandale's store.

Basu writes in today's Register about Kyle Dowie, 43, who is mentally retarded and has worked for Hy-Vee for 25 years.

Dowie, of Clive, handled the can and bottle redemption machines as part of his job. According to Basu's article, he was fired and accused of theft for turning in 20-cents worth of unclaimed bottle-deposit slips.

Hy-Vee declined to talk about the case to Basu, but Dowie's mother said she believes it's because he was making $13 an hour and had four weeks of vacation a year. She says the operations manager who fired Dowie offered to help him get a job at another Hy-Vee, where he would have to start at minimum wage and no benefits.

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Dowie's lawyer, Brooke Timmer, calls it “one of those cases that just gets my blood boiling.”

Dowie's mother acknowledges that he had been written up before for cashing in unclaimed bottle deposit slips, but said the last time was eight years ago. She also said there was an incident at the store last year when a Salvation Army bell ringing triggered her son's Tourette's Syndrome. She said she worked with his manager to get her son ear plugs to resolve the problem.

Basu's article says Hy-Vee went to a hearing this week to contest Dowie's unemployment benefits.