A gas station manager who raised over $20,000 to make up for a mistake that cost him his job says company refuses to accept the money

• A former gas-station manager lost his job after mistakenly charging $0.69 a gallon for gas.

• The mistake cost the company $20,000, he said. His family has raised over $24,000 to pay it back.

• The company declined to accept the funds, saying that the GoFundMe was misleading.

A gas-station manager who raised funds to pay back his former employer after mistakenly setting a discounted gas price said the company has declined to accept the money.

John Szczecina lost his job after charging $0.69 a gallon on premium gas at a Shell gas station in Rancho Cordova, California. The gas station reportedly lost $20,000 after hundreds of cars took advantage of the low price.

To repay the station owners, Szczecina's sister — Paula Jackson — started a GoFundMe that raised more than $24,000.

"He doesn't have to pay it back," Jackson told The Washington Post. "But just the fact that he is doing it and wants to do it shows a lot of character and honesty and responsibility, and I'm really proud of him for that."

Szczecina told ABC30 he was worried about getting sued by the station owners. Craig Simmermon, a business attorney, told CBS Sacramento that Szczecina would be protected from liability from a mistake made while performing his normal job duties.

"The only way he would be responsible outside of a written agreement is if he was acting outside the scope of his employment," Simmermon told CBS Sacramento. "For instance, if his boss said, 'Whatever you do, don't ever set the price on that gas pump,' and then he did."