A local waitress who fired her gun at three fleeing robbers is now out of a job.Heather "Shorty" Burkinshaw-Stanley learned Friday by phone that she was terminated from her job at Waffle House a day after the restaurant was robbed.
Three men ate a meal and then, instead of paying, gave the cashier a note warning everyone in the building would be shot if money in the cash register wasn’t handed over to the trio.
After they departed on foot, Stanley retrieved a gun from her own car in the parking lot and fired over the heads of the robbers.
"I wasn’t sure if they were coming back or not," she said Friday afternoon following her dismissal. "I was in fear for my life, my co-workers’ lives, and I did what I thought was right."
Corporate spokesman Pat Warner declined to discuss specifics of a personnel matter but said local managers do the hiring and firing with consultation from the home office.
Like most businesses, the company has internal security measures but doesn’t ask workers to be heroes. Employees are trained on how to act in the case of a robbery.
That training must go something like "cower in the corner in a puddle of your own urine".
"We want people to feel safe on both sides of the counter," he said.
WTF is that supposed to mean? Does this include the employees somehow?
Stanley had worked at the Waffle House at 1363 S. Highway 29 for almost two years. A video about the incident can be accessed on times-herald.com.
I imagine Heather could always come back as a customer. Wearing a large coat. In the summer. And stare at the manager.
Thursday’s incident comes in the wake of a surge in robberies at Newnan-area Waffle Houses. A restaurant on Highway 154 at Interstate 85 was robbed twice in one month this fall.
Robbers be advised: Well, I know of one Newman, Georgia Waffle house that welcomes your business. Head on down there with your squirt guns 'cause the only one with any balls got fired.
