Arby’s Manager Fired After Escaping Armed Robbery

Melissa Knowles

Quick! You're being robbed at knifepoint. What's the first thing you do? For most of us, unless we're actually put in that situation or have some prior training in how to escape unharmed, it's hard to know how we would react.

An Arby's employee named Maria Archer is grateful to have escaped last Friday, when a man attempted to rob the restaurant where she worked. Archer, who was an assistant manager, said she was doing the closing duties at around 1 a.m. when she heard the doorbell ring. She assumed it was her co-worker who had just left and went to answer the door. To her surprise, it was a man with a knife, who tried to push her into a corner. Archer's instincts kicked in, and somehow she was able to push the man away and give herself enough time to escape through the drive-through window. She recalled thinking, "I'm not going to die at Arby's tonight. I'm just not."

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Here's where things get interesting. When Archer returned to work, she was fired. Archer told a local TV station, "I just never thought this would happen to me. Especially since my life was at stake." Arby's defended its decision, saying that violations of its safety and security policy mean termination of employment without exception. Archer broke policy because she was alone in the fast-food business when it was robbed.

A vice president of human resources in Arby's corporate office told a WHIO-TV reporter that he felt badly for Archer but that she knowingly violated the company's safety and security policy, and she had been warned before.

This is the third time that this Fairborn, Ohio, Arby's location has been robbed in a six-month period. Archer said that while she was working there, no alarm or security cameras were ever installed to help protect from future intrusions. So far, the suspect has not been apprehended.

Archer said that she does not want her job back, even though January would have marked her 23rd year with the company. She's thankful to have escaped with her life.

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