Man quits over 666 on tax form

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CLARKSVILLE, Tenn., Feb. 7 (UPI) -- A Tennessee man who quit his job after receiving a W-2 tax form stamped with the number 666 said he was trying to save his soul.

Walter Slonopas, 52, resigned as a maintenance worker at Contech Casting LLC in Clarksville, Tenn., last week because accepting the form stamped with 666 -- believed by some to be the "number of the beast" associated with the apocalypse -- would be a one-way ticket to hell, The Tennessean, a newspaper in Nashville, reported Thursday.

"If you accept that number, you sell your soul to the devil," he said.

Slonopas said he was initially given the number 666 to clock in when he was hired in April 2011 but his complaints led to it being changed to 668. He told the newspaper he resigned after the number reverted to 666 when the company changed time clock systems three months later but he returned to work a few days later when the company apologized.

Bob LaCourciere, vice president of sales and marketing for the Revstone Corp., which owns Contech Casting, said he was shocked the mistake was repeated with a stamp on Slonopas' form.

"I am completely at a loss for words," he said.

LaCourciere said Slonopas will be issued a replacement form and he hopes the worker can be convinced to return to the company.

However, Slonopas said he will not return to Contech.

"God is worth more than money," he told The Tennessean.