That One Time I Was Held At Gunpoint

Wow. I cant’ believe I’ve never blogged about this story before. Apparently the time has come for me to share this experience with all of you.

It’s funny how comments on other people’s blogs can spark a post.

You see, I was reading my friend Margaret’s Blog, ‘Nanny Goats In Panties’, and she had written a post called, “What’s The Worst Thing You’ve Done To A Customer”. If you haven’t read it? You should.

Margaret tells a very funny story about the time she worked for a ‘Fast Food Restaurant’ and a subsequent mishap with a bucket of fried chicken, which may or may not have killed a person. [Yes. You read that correctly.] The comments on that post consisted of other people’s stories seeking revenge or hating on customers while working in the ‘Service Industry’. As I was contemplating my own reply to the conversation, I realized I have never truly been afforded the opportunity to really mess with anyone. At least not while at work. Eventually, one thing led to another, and it came out that I too had once worked in the ‘Fast Food Business’. But that only lasted for a week. And you’ll find out why by the end of this post.

Later that very same day, I was reading my friend Nicky’s Blog, ‘We Work For Cheese’, wherein she had posted a story called, “When In Doubt Tell The Truth”. If you haven’t read that? Than you should. [And not just because I have the biggest ‘Girl Crush’ on her.]

Nicky shared some truths about herself and much to my surprise we had a boatload of things in common. And one of those things was being held at gunpoint. Considering ‘My Story’ has been brought up on two other blogs [via comments] I suppose it’s only fair to share the ‘Whole Story’ with all of you today.

Here we go…

The year was 1991. I was 17 years old, living in Daytona Beach, Florida with my grandparents and the time had come for me get one of those ‘Job’ thingys. Having little to NO work experience, I figured my best bet would be to find employment at a local McDonald’s.

I was hired immediately.

I absolutely loathed putting on that ‘Outfit’. And may I just mention that it is half past IMPOSSIBLE to get the smell of grease, and the stench of ‘All Things Fried’ out of any fabric, especially a ‘Uniform’ made of brown polyester.

Anyway…

On my seventh day working, I was deemed ‘Skilled’ enough to handle the ‘Fry Station’. I immediately got busy congratulating myself for getting ‘Promoted’ so quickly. Of course, it doesn’t really take a ‘Rocket Scientist’ to drop a bag of frozen French fries into burning hot oil.

Later that evening, as I was sweating profusely underneath the ‘Red Heating Lamps’, cussing under my breath, and rethinking my ‘Promotion’ was more like ‘Punishment’, when three men in ski masks entered the building. I couldn’t see them right away, but I sure could hear people screaming.

One of the three men stayed by the front door. I suppose he was the ‘Look Out’, or his job must have been ‘Crowd Control’. The other two men rapidly approached the registers, jumped over the counter, wielding weapons, and demanded the Manager.

One of those two men rounded up all of the employees, including ‘Yours Truly’ and took us back towards the freezer. He told us to, ‘Shut Up and Stay Put!” And then he slammed the door, locking us inside.

I don’t know how long we were trapped in that freezer, but if it was only five minutes it sure felt like five years. And after what seemed like forever times infinity and a half, the unharmed manager opened the door, freeing us from Sub-Zero temperatures.

The store was closed, the police we called, reports were filed and the incident was made public the next day in the newspapers.

[Sadly, I cannot find the original article. I’ve saved it all of these years, and I am pretty sure it’s stuck at the bottom of a box in storage where many other items of my past dwell.]

After I came home to my grandparents and I explained how I had been held hostage in the freezer of McDonald’s, at gunpoint, while we were being robbed, my grandparents never let me go back to work there. In fact, they didn’t want me working anywhere.

And that concluded my stint in any kind of ‘Fast Food Joint’.

So how many of YOU have worked in the Fast Food Business? And what kind of experiences have YOU had?

About Meleah

Mother. Writer. Television Junkie. Pajama Jean Enthusiast.
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90 Responses to That One Time I Was Held At Gunpoint

  1. AHAHahahahha. True!
    xoxoxo

  2. So this one time? I dropped a bucket of chicken on the floor? And well, you know the rest. 🙂 I'm glad you told this story here – it's very exciting, but not exactly in a good way. I'm just glad you lived to tell the tale!

  3. Oscar says:

    Wow, that must have been a scary event for ya. You see stuff like that on TV and never figure it would happen to you.
    I've never worked in the fast food industry. I did work at a small amusement park. I used to run the tilt a whirl, give out golf balls at the mini golf course and other stuff like that. The closest I ever had to any kind of criminal activity was people stealing gold balls or not getting off rides. I had to call the police often. I started a real job when I was 18. My family wasn't the richest in town and I had to fund my college years.

    Well I'm sure we all are glad you pulled through that one. Like me – that probably wasn't the worse thing you've been through in retrospect!

  4. Shawn says:

    holy crap! how frightening! I never worked in a fast-food joint, but years ago as part-owner of a Pub, I spent a lot of time stocking beer in the big ol' walk-in fridge…not too scary, but really really cold! 😉

  5. dcr says:

    I've been shot at before, but it was with a BB gun. And I think the kid probably got in trouble with his parents.

    Never worked in fast food. Had a neighbor once who was actually forbidden by his parents to work at a fast food place.

  6. Me too Margaret! Me too!

  7. I would have totally been the kind of person to steal golf balls!

  8. Those freezers are NO joke!

  9. Aw! Im glad you weren't too injured!

  10. dcr says:

    Well, it was better than being locked in a freezer by a gun-wielding madman. I'm glad you got out of that okay.

    And didn't get freezer-burn. 😉

    Of course, for all I know, my former neighbor grew up to be your gun-wielding madman. That's how they start… torturing animals and small children.

  11. That IS how they start! Ahahahahahah

  12. Jules says:

    Crazy!!!! I worked at Subway for a couple years but never had anything like that happen to me.

  13. lemonstand says:

    Nope, never worked in the food industry. All my 'horror' stories come from natural disasters and the military. My father in law actually told my husband and I that we could not move home because natural disasters were following us and he was not joking. Can't say I blame him. There was a stretch of 3 years where we were involved in two major hurricanes (two of them were Hurricane Andrew and Hurricane Iniki), 3 major typhoon's (Typhoon Omar completely destroyed our house), a volcanic eruption (Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines), an earthquake (in Japan) and a small (thank you God) tsunami (on Guam). (getting out of the military seemed to cure the problem… just wanted to reassure my neighbors) :o)

  14. Roshan says:

    Oh my lord. I can imagine the scare that you must have felt and your grandparents. That must have given you nightmares for weeks. Nothing like that has happened to me and I've never worked in the fast food industry either.
    On a side note, do you have a pic of you when you were 17? You must have been a very hot teenager grwwwoollll!!

  15. Awakeinroch says:

    Ek! How frightening. I’m glad you weren’t hurt! I’ve never worked at a fast food place. I could tell you many stories about nursing homes. Hm, maybe I’ll write a story about work. Yours takes the cake though.

  16. I might have an old photo around here somewhere?

  17. You should TOTALLY do that!

  18. Gina says:

    Okay, well I never worked in a fast food restaurant but I guess you could say I was kind of held at gunpoint at one time in my life. But I didn't really consider it that.

    I was about fifteen at the time and we were on our way to the city (Chicago) to cop. When we pulled up to the spot the guy on the corner came to the car, bent over into my side of the car and held a gun to my face stating that he'd like to take me inside. The driver (my friend) of the car I was in, spread his legs to reveal his own gun and he calmly shook his head no while staring this guy dead in the eye, not saying a word. The guy put the gun back in his jacket and asked us how much we wanted. We made our transaction and well…you know the rest. Not a very exciting story I know, but that was my experience.

    By the way, you probably won't believe this, but I was also seventeen in 1991. Huh. Go figure. 😉

    hugs and kisses, I'm off to comment on the rest of your posts. I just got back from my trip so I'm catching up now.

  19. YAY! You're back! I've missed you.

    And I am NOT surprised AT ALL that we are The Same Age.
    Especially since we ARE twins!

    That story is crazy! Sometimes I can't believe the situations we were in and
    LIVED to tell them!

    PS: Now that I am no longer dying from mutant bronchitis, I am back to
    writing and functioning again at full capacity! I *pinky swear* to sign into
    the writing group THIS WEEK!

  20. Dear God, Meleah! What a horrible experience! The worst thing that ever happened to me was thinking an intruder was in my house, and calling the cops. The cops came but my German Shepherd Willie wouldn't let them come in to look around. Those policemen thought I had nothing to worry about. Another time, I thought a man was eyeballing me to grab my purse. He didn't. He grabbed my crotch. I hit him in the face and head with my keys.

  21. HOLY CRAP Linda! Im glad you hit him in the face with your keys!

  22. Gina says:

    Ir's okay. Whenever you're ready. No pressure lady.

    xoxoxo

  23. ladyV says:

    giiiiit the heck out of here. i would have immediately crapped in my pants. now there's a crabby patty for you.

    i can't really work with the public, i don't want to talk, i don't want to help a soul, i don't always feeling like smiling and i have an attitude on most days. i wouldn't mind stocking shelves and making things neat though.

    scary stuff sister.

  24. I am not a huge fan of the general public either!

  25. Ricardo says:

    I worked for McDonald's for 2 weeks and hated it in high school.

    I had a gun put to my head over a fight about a girl me and this other guy liked. He put it to my forehead then put it away. I asked if he thought that made him a man and if so take it out and put it to my head again because I would show him what a real man does in that situation. He did. I put my head to the barrel looked him in the eye and told him to go fuck himself. A real man doesn't need that kind of gun to get a woman. He was so shocked that he put the gun away, hugged me, told me he was my friend for life and vowed to kill whoever messed with me. He also got me a ton of free drinks. This was in 97 I think. Don't ever do what I did, kids!!!

  26. Doood! Thats CRAZY!!!

  27. Ricardo says:

    I was drunk, so was he. I was also younger and very stupid. 

  28. Ricardo says:

    Yeah, my uncle who was at the bar at the time said he would have had no issue pulling the trigger if I weren't so bold.

  29. Hot Damn Ricardo! You totally need to blog that story!

  30. Ricardo says:

    I did a few years back. But it was part of a bigger multi-part story about finding out my deadbat father had died.

  31. Ricardo says:

    It's buried in the story but it is a good one.

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