So this happened about 20 mins ago and I will try to keep it short. On mobile sorry for any errors.

A little backstory about the company I work for, While it isn't a terribly strict place to work, it is very heavy handed with disciplinary actions for violating company rules. With most stating immediate termination for violation.

Anyway, I usually get in around 10 and take my lunch at noon. Today I decided to get a sprite from the vending machine as I hadn't had one in a very long time. While I was eating my lunch, my boss walked in to inform me about an upcoming meeting. Mid sentence she spotted the sprite and told me to wait here. Thinking nothing of it I continued to eat my lunch. About ten mins later she had called security to escort me out of the office. Very confused I ask why? She responded with, "you are in violation of company policy by drinking an alcoholic beverage during work hours". I was still confused, mainly because I am only 20 yrs old. I was being escorted out before I had any chance to explain myself.

So naturally I get really mad and inform them that I had nothing alcoholic with me. Then I remembered the Sprite. Recently, Sprite cans have this,"obey the phrase" thing going on that has some phrases written in a weird script. So from a distance it looks like a beer can. I am trying to explain this and they aren't hearing any of it. Then the head of HR(Barbara) walks by and asks what is happening. I explain my half while my boss explains hers. In the process of explaining , lo and behold Barbara is holding the same can. She holds it up and asks my boss if this looked similar. She responds then they go check my office. She finds the can and let's me go. Now I am sitting in my office writing this while Barbara is having a "meeting" about my boss's actions

TL;DR almost got fired because of a Sprite can.

Picture of can in comments

UPDATE: My boss is planning to find someway to make this right She isn't a terrible boss, as she is actually pretty friendly As she told me, she has had problems with others in the past that have violated that rule and got into some pretty serious problems for not catching it. She was protecting her job which I can understand. This company hires a lot of 20 ish year old people so can't really stay mad about it. She plans to buy me lunch at some point, though I doubt it. In terms of the can ,I am making a memo about it to let others know to get the information before losing their minds. And will post the memo sometime later. As far as HR is concerned, it's just another story to pass around

Update 2: there is another post on Tifu as someone claiming to be my boss on the other side of the story While I do give him/her credit for attempted karma whoring, they don't even know the name of my company or my position. Someone below in the comments has posted the link to the other post and as soon as I can will be linking it myself Thanks for the support guys

Update 3: someone said I should post to Twitter at sprite to see what would happen. Just did it Edit: removed Twitter link as I wasn't aware of all the rules