Arby’s Employee Fired After Fleeing Armed Robbery

“I’m not going to die in Arby’s tonight…I’m just not.”

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An Arby's in Des Plaines, Illinois.

“I’m not going to die in Arby’s tonight…I’m just not.”

That’s what assistant manager Mary Archer said she was thinking when she narrowly escaped an armed robbery by climbing out of the fast food restaurant’s drive-thru window, News Center 7 reports.

The store’s upper management, however, apparently had little sympathy for the woman’s harrowing experience, as she was reportedly fired less than a day later for violating Arby’s safety and security policies.

Mary Archer, 56, was closing up the Fairborn, Ohio, franchise on Friday at around 12:45 a.m. when the incident occurred, she recalled to News Center 7. A co-worker had just left, and when she heard Arby’s doorbell ring, she thought the other employee had forgotten something and returned to retrieve it. Instead, a man with a knife appeared at the door and demanded that Archer hand over the restaurant’s money. Archer said he cornered her in an office, but she managed to push him aside and slip out through the drive-thru window. A passerby heard her screams and called the police, WHIO-TV 7 reports. The would-be thief fled empty-handed.

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Archer’s daughter told News Center 7 that this was the third robbery at that location in six months, and Archer had been on duty during all three incidents.

Archer, who worked at Arby’s for almost 23 years, signed her termination papers shortly after Friday’s incident. She had apparently violated the company’s safety and security policy by being alone in the store during closing, as Arby’s rules indicate that there should be at least two employees present. This misstep calls for “termination of employment without exception,” News Center 7 reports.

A vice president of Arby’s Human Resources told WHIO TV that while Archer’s experience is unfortunate, the former employee knew she was violating company policy and had received a warning previously.

Archer said she was not expecting to be fired upon returning to work the next day.

“I just never thought that would happen to me, since my life was at stake,” she told WHIO TV.

Archer, however, said she is not looking to get her job back, and she criticized the Arby’s location for not having alarms or cameras for added security.

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