WASHINGTON – A local Salvation Army bell ringer has been fired after mishandling a donation outside a grocery store.

A listener contacted WTOP after she was stopped from dropping a dollar into the Salvation Army kettle outside the Tenleytown Safeway.

“He stopped me, took the dollar and put it in the apron he was wearing and said the pot was full,” the listener wrote in an email.

The woman was suspicious of the behavior and contacted the store manager.

The Salvation Army terminated the bell ringer early Wednesday morning, says Ken Forsythe, spokesman with the Salvation Army, National Capital Area. He adds that they consider it to be an isolated incident.

“We have instances where the kettles are full and you cannot fit any more in. The bell ringer should attempt to get the money into the kettle as much as possible,” he says.

Forsythe says they may consider retraining bell ringers on properly handling donations. The person who is donating the cash is the only person who should touch the money and put it into the kettle, he says.

All kettles, which have locks, are picked up at the end of each shift by a Salvation Army officer.

“We’d like to reassure all our donors that the Salvation Army receives and appreciates all of their donations,” Forsythe says.

“And we hope we still see the public come out with their donations because the money is truly needed.”

The organization has a goal of raising $1.6 million this holiday season to serve the thousands of families in need in the D.C. Region.

WTOP’s Neal Augenstein contributed to this report. Follow Neal and WTOP on Twitter.

(Copyright 2011 by WTOP. All Rights Reserved.)