A 58-year-old Wal-Mart employee who said he “couldn’t take it anymore” lit himself on fire outside the Bloomingdale store where he worked late Thursday night and was later pronounced dead at a hospital, authorities said this morning.

In an interview, his son said his father went to work last night with nothing seeming out of the ordinary. “This had nothing to do with the economy. I want to make that clear,” he said, adding that the family may never know the reason for the public suicide.

When one of the first officers tried to speak to the man, who by that time was severely burned, he responded, “I just couldn’t take it anymore,” a man said, citing the officer’s report.

The man “enjoyed his job and living in the ‘burbs,” his son said. “We were getting ready to redo the front lawn.” He added that his father had no health problems.

“You try not to ask yourself the question [why he did it] because there’s no answer,” the son said.