Walmart squirter is from WV

Please note that JayBee Oil has responded on 1/24/17. They say that Blake was not their employee, but that he works for a place called "Yellow Jacket." There is no email address for Yellow Jacket (naturally), so I'll have to call. Original post follows, and I have shared JayBee's response in the comments.

Dear JayBee Oil:

I was reading about your employee, Timothy D. Blake, the “Walmart Squirter.” Very creepy. He’s yours, right? The bumblebee logo. Your website talks about drilling with “Skill, Respect & Integrity.” This guy does not represent that, clearly.

Plenty of oil guys are upstanding folks, and I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt and assume that you personally are one of the good ones. I know you can’t be held responsible for the criminal acts of your employee in his off time. That’s not why I’m writing.

I’m writing for two reasons.

First, I’d like you to understand that when you receive complaints from surface rights owners, you should take them seriously. This shocking incident should illustrate, I hope, that you may not know your employees as well as you think you do. Frankly a lot of us out here are terrorized by gas and oil guys.

I want you to understand that comments in this area are: “This doesn’t surprise me.”

And that’s not because of this particular guy. We’re not surprised because we’ve encountered abuses from other oil and gas men, often repeatedly. It’s the way the industry treats us: they call us a “pack of hyenas.” We’ve been lied to. We’ve been trespassed on (I’ve personally had to chase industry folks off my property twice). We’ve been stolen from.

The operators we have currently at our farm have always been very respectful… but when you’ve been threatened, when you’ve been lied to, and stolen from, and when you’re alone on a mountain far from help, that changes your perspective. We don’t get to choose who are operators are. Once the minerals are leased, we’re at your mercy. We’re helpless.

That’s why I want to make sure you also understand that your values aren’t necessarily their values. I presume you thought this Blake was a good guy—that’s why you employed him right? You were wrong about that. What he admitted to doing to women was ghastly.

So when a landowner somewhere calls you with a complaint about an employee, please take them seriously. When someone calls you, frantic about how frack water is being sprayed or dumped illegally, investigate. Because the best case scenario here is that you don’t know your guys like you thought you did. And that misjudgment could happen again. Please don’t just dismiss us when we complain about the noise or the lights or the contamination.

We’re all so very tired of being dismissed.

I know it must be very frustrating to deal with people who distrust you, who distrust your whole business. But if you’re the good guy, be a good neighbor. Take the time to listen. We love our homes.

And second, about Blake: It’s a legitimate public concern for members of our community to know if he will be out working in the field as this case moves forward in the courts. He apparently admitted to the, er, squirting. If your plan for the time being is to keep him as an employee, perhaps you could do us the courtesy of keeping him in the office.

Can you let us know?

Thank you,

Lissa
Cairo, WV