Yeah especially for the superfan who just wanted to break the release date embargo to play the game. He got the game so that's it, mission accomplished. But he had no escape plan. And it's Amazon, he could probably have gotten himself fired by taking 4 or 5 bathroom breaks in a single shift.
Oh, come on! They aren't that quick to fire. Of course you first get a Performance Improvement Plan that specifies you are not allowed to use the toilet outside of your manager assigned breaks for the next 365 days and are given a handy plastic bottle to help with compliance. They can't possibly be THAT cruel.
/s
Also they're hiring at the nearby warehouse if anyone's interested!
> I wonder whether they would have been caught if they had actually quit
Probably not. Which is to say, I'm sure other people have done something very similar, but because they didn't draw attention to themselves by stopping to show up, they didn't get make the news.
I've never known a company pursue legal action for not honoring a notice period - it's going to cost them far more than it's worth to pursue it legally than to just stop paying you for not turning up.