Popeyes Offers To Re-Hire Manager Fired After Armed Robbery

(KHOU 11)

A former Popeyes manager who claims she was fired after refusing to repay the restaurant back after an armed robber stole $400 from the cash registers has been offered her job back. The owners of the location said in a statement that they “deeply regret the way this matter was handled.”

According to KHOU-11, the ex-worker had a meeting with the owner of the company that operates the location.

“He just apologized and pretty much offered me if I wanted to go back to his business and work there again,” she said.

She’d maintained that she was fired for not reimbursing the restaurant the $400 that was stolen during a robbery on March 31, but the company said she was fired for breaking policy and having too much money in the register.

“I told them I’m not paying nothing,” she told KHOU. “I just had a gun to me. I’m not paying the money.”

The company issued a statement apologizing over how it handled things:

“We deeply regret the way this matter was handled. We are committed to continuing to work with [the worker], and we apologize to her, our employees, the public and other franchise operators of the Popeyes system. We have let them down and are committed to do better.”

CEO Cheryl Bachelder out of the Popeyes corporate office in Georgia also weighed in on the incident, saying Wednesday night:

“We recently became aware of a story in Houston involving a Popeyes restaurant and employee. The restaurant is operated by an independent franchisee of the Popeyes brand. We have spoken to the local franchise owner of the restaurant, and he has taken immediate action to reach out to the employee to apologize and rectify the situation. While the facts are gathered, we will closely monitor this until it is appropriately resolved. We deeply regret the distress this situation has caused.”

Along with her old job, the former manager has been offered $2,000 in back pay. She’s unsure if she’ll go back to work or not, despite having three children to support and another on the way.

“I do need a way to support my kids,” she tells KHOU. “I don’t want to go back to a business where I’m treated the same and I just get pushed back out if something else happened.”

Popeyes attempting to rectify pregnant manager’s firing [KHOU-11]

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist