Lost My Job Today (being honest sucks)

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Hey guys, hope you're all well. So as the title suggest I found out a bit less than 2 hours ago that I've been terminated from my job without notice. It's a long messy story so I'll try to be brief.
-Started working for this company 2/2/15
-Offered and accepted a promising transfer in Sept 2016 (included a company house and easier work at a smaller site)
-I was glad to take this chance to leave coz it came out that there was recording of private conversations at work (one of the managers was trying to get one of our worker's girlfriends to leave him for cheating on her- still no clue as to why- he and his own partner got together by cheating on their respective partners so it wasn't on moral grounds. It was also especially messed up since the manager and the guy he was recording were meant to be good friends for ~10 years)
-April 2016, someone left from my original worksite (where the recording drama was happening) so I was offered another transfer back there (this time with a company house and a management position)
-I had major reservations to say the least but I was convinced by a senior manager it would be different. The worksite would now be subdivided into 3 areas and I'd be left alone with 1 worker (the guy who had been recorded)
-Turned out things weren't that simple, there was immediately drama (now that manager and his partner were accusing the guy who they recorded of sexual assault against the manager's partner)
-There was also a whole host of other accusations leveled against him, HR came in to give us all a talking to but nothing was really done about it
-During that time I had recorded some private conversations between myself and the guy who recorded others to protect myself and the guy who had already been recorded and accused of sexual assault
-There's been constant low level trouble ever since but in the past 6 months I personally witnessed the guy who had been recorded opening other people's mail
-Despite the fact that I'd stood by him through being recorded without his consent, being accused of a serious crime and also threats to have his girlfriend deported (because of supposed visa issues) and numerous other attacks against him, the recorded guy threw me under the bus in a work meeting
-Now his 10 year friendship with the guy who recorded him and accused him of sexual assault started to be repaired a bit and I knew I'd be the one to suffer for their shared duplicity
-I decided to get proof that the recorded guy was opening people's mail and take it to the manager who was recording people because I suspected that I was starting to be blamed for it
-I was worried that the manager would still somehow turn the mail stuff against me and sure enough, HR came back a couple of weeks ago to do an investigation
-This was because the guy who had been recorded, accused of sexual assault etc decided to quit and got the manager, now his friend again after all that BS, to call HR on me
-I was asked about things that had happened months before, even more than a year ago, but which I was honest about and admitted to (drinking a couple of beers in the lunch break and then returning to work, recording the manager after I came back here to all that drama before)
-I deserved to be terminated for those things alone but the HR guy told me today when he was giving me notice of immediate termination that he appreciated my honesty 2 weeks earlier during the investigation
-He said something like "I believe your story more than some other people's" and even now I haven't even mentioned certain things in retaliation or to try and save my job. I actually told the guy at the end of the investigation interview a couple of weeks ago that I wanted to leave anyway. As for that slimey manager who was the first person to record people (and who has also had allegations of drinking at work going back years before I worked for the company)? I might have even saved his job! After the HR guy spoke to me a couple weeks back it was his turn to go in there and talk to him. And he (the manager/recording guy) told me himself that the HR guy only asked him a few words and he panicked and quit on the spot. So I told him (knowing that he didn't really want to leave) that I was planning on leaving so he should try to take his resignation back. It seems like that has happened

Anyway, I was asked about doing things that I know several people on site have been doing for years (in some cases even before I got here) and I answered honestly. Now I'm out of a job and I have two weeks to leave the company house (at least that part's very generous I suppose). Other people were also asked the same accusations but they obviously lied and so they still have jobs. The HR guy pretty much admitted that but what can he do? If that manager in particular leaves then I guess they have no one to run the place. Oh well, I did plan on leaving before Christmas. I guess everything just works out sometimes but now I have 2 weeks to find a job and move house. I obviously would have liked to secure another job and then quit.

Tell me about your work woes WP, see if you can top mine

Wow that's crazy ! ! I can't top it but I've had some woe moments with my jobs.

1) I was working at my local Co-Op and the supervisor there didn't like me. I came down with a stomach bug and one day he was having a go at me and I accidentally threw up on his shoes ! I think he would have fired me eventually but I quit in the end.

2) I worked in an ice cream shop and this little boy came in, he was about 12 I think and looked like a little angel.
Anyway he asked for a cornetto I gave him one and said the price and he grinned and then did a runner I ran out after him, slipped on the door step and broke my ankle. Lol I never saw the kid again. I got fired in the end because people said I was giving them odd looks, but I think that was just the ASD as I can't help it.

Sorry to hear about your job.

1. You witnessed someone opening mail and didn't report it, this isn't just illegal, it's a federal offence. This is big time prison stuff, you can't mess with mail.

2. You were drinking at work, of course someone had an issue with that. It doesn't matter if every other person in the office was drinking, you're responsible for your own actions.

It's too bad it all happened this way, hopefully it works out for you next time.

Every cloud has it's silver lining I guess lol

Yeah it's the same thing in Australia, but we call federal crimes a Commonwealth offence. I did report it verbally to the guy whose mail was opened not long afterwards. This is because I did try to report a serious crime in Australia once (a guy chatting to a school girl on the train while trying to take a picture or film up her skirt) but they told me they couldn't act on the information because I wasn't the victim and I didn't know them either (someone told me about it happening). So I figured it was his mail, it was his duty to report it. They probably wouldn't listen to me.

But I agree with the rest of what you said. I can cop it fair and sqaure because at least I know I did the wrong thing and admitted it. It just irks me that everyone kind of knows that these problems are widespread cultural issues on site, and have been for years, but as long as you tell flat out lies you can get away with it.

My brother's lawyer gave me this advice:

1. Do nothing illegal.

2. Don't get caught doing anything illegal.

3. Deny everything, even if caught doing something illegal.

4. Let your lawyer do all the talking.

I dunno man. I'm not trying to make myself seem pure of heart or something. I lie. Everyone does. But there's just something about being asked in a sort of "formal" situation or setting about having done something and if I have, it feels like it would require super human strength to get through the cringe of straight up lying to someone's face. Hell, I've even caught myself admitting to things I haven't done. Though there's nothing noble about false contrition. It's idiotic and weak and in my opinion people who are dumb enough to take the wrap for something they didn't do almost deserve the same punishment as the guilty lol.

The cops didn't listen to you because you didn't witness it happening, that's called hearsay and isn't admissible in court. The person witnessing the crime needs to report it so they can be summoned to court if required. And in the case of the opening mail, that witness is you.

You can't compare something someone told you to personally witnessing someone commit a federal crime.

Fair enough. I guess that makes sense. Yesterday, one of the guys mentioned in passing (in addition to having a couple of beers at work and the recording thing) that I had "possession of stolen property" (meaning the bank card). But he was quick to follow that with "not that you're the one who stole it". This is because I told them how I actually got it back from the guy who did.
Now if I did that (retrieved it from the person who stole it) and then told the rightful owner what happened and he then told me to do whatever I want with it (destroy, throw it away, he even said I could keep it just in case I needed to use it against the other guy) isn't that more like retrieved stolen property? I mean, once I took it back from the guy who opened it and then told the owner I had it and he gave me permission to do what I want with it, at that point wouldn't it stop being stolen property?
I understand you guys might not be legal eagles either and sometimes this counter can be counter intuitive but I'm only accepting what I know I've done. If my termination letter says that I had stolen property then I'm going to fight that one.