Did Heather Burkinshaw Stanley a Georgia Waffle House waitress go out of bounds when she resorted to firing a gunshot warning while being robbed?
Disconcert has come to the fore after Heather Burkinshaw Stanley a waitress at a Georgia Waffle House came to be fired after trying to protect the restaurant she worked at from three robbers who demanded cash.
The incident happened in the early morning hours of Thursday morning circa 2.30 am at the Coweta County franchise when three male robbers entered the fast food vendor.
From there one of the men walked over to the counter and gave an employee a note threatening to shoot everyone inside the restaurant unless they handed over money, according to a police report.
In turn Heather ‘Shorty’ Burkinshaw-Stanley‘s co-worker passed her the note, prompting the employee to grab her gun from her car. She then fired once into the air as the robbers escaped to their vehicles after haven already stolen $200.
‘I know what I did. To myself I felt it was right and wouldn’t hesitate, I would do it again,’ Stanley told WSB-TV.
No one was hurt during the incident, officials said, with some saying that the gunshot although meant to be a warning could’ve landed anywhere.
To date, police have yet to make any arrests.
“I would do it again.” Waffle House waitress fired for firing warning shot at robbers is unapologetic. https://t.co/Wegy2qImdJ pic.twitter.com/wHy3L5DIen
— Matt Johnson (@MJohnsonWSB) January 1, 2017
The incident led to Stanley being fired, with the worker since saying she didn’t expect management taking ‘drastic measures’.
Told the former waitress: ‘For trying to protect their Waffle House and trying to protect their money and to get their money back, they let me go.’
Told corporate spokesman Pat Warner via the Newnan Times-Herald, ‘we want people to feel safe on both sides of the counter.’
The mother of three has since set up a GoFundMe page to help pay for expenses while she searches for a new job.
What do you think? Did Heather Stanley go overboard in resorting to a gun? What if her using a gun resulted in a life being saved? Especially her own? Which is to wonder, doesn’t an employee have the right to defend their own life if they feel threatened?
Or is this her employer’s way of letting Heather and other employees know, as much as they think they might be doing their boss a favor (never mind insurance policies to protect for things like robberies), they’re equally disposable the moment they put the vendor in a position of being liable, even during a bank robbery ….
