A fast food restaurant manager went to the extreme in training his staffers on how to handle a hold-up situation: his method scared paying customers and earned a serious reprimand from local police.
A manager of a Sonic in St. Joseph, MO recently staged a lunchtime mugging, recruiting someone to enter the restaurant with a real-looking toy gun and hold it to an employee’s head. Problem was, employees weren’t the only ones taken by surprise: When authorities received frantic reports from panicked customers of a potential hostage situation, they sped to the restaurant to resolve it.
“The officers quickly determined this was a training exercise,” the St. Joseph police commander Jim Connors recounts. “We forcefully got the message across that’s not expected behavior.”
Sonic did not return calls and e-mails seeking comment, so it’s unclear whether the manager was following a corporate directive. Connors reports the St. Joe police also contacted Sonic in the wake of the incident, but have not yet received a response.
No arrests were made in conjunction with the pseudo-crime.
Fast food restaurants are frequently targeted by robbers: According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, dozens of fast food workers are killed every year, usually in the course of late-night armed robberies. Asked whether St. Joe’s fast food restaurants have been plagued by violent crime, Connors said “No.”
“If you’re going to do this,” he added, “At least do it when customers aren’t there.”
December 14th, 2009 at 10:54 PM
This is just plain stupid – what were they thinking?
December 15th, 2009 at 9:48 PM
Obviously they weren’t thinking. Whoever thought up this training exercise should be fired. If I tried to pull something like at my restaurant my career would be over!
December 18th, 2009 at 5:21 PM
Can’t help but laugh. Looks like the manager was taking the idea of a shock ad a little bit too far!
December 20th, 2009 at 6:52 PM
The road to “you-know-where” was paved with good intentions. Certainly, this a perfect example of what NOT to do in training your team for a hostile takeover. The only real hostility resulting from this scheme is certainly the battered feelings of the unsuspecting guests who should not have been put in the middle of this.
December 21st, 2009 at 9:18 AM
A little too out of the box! In addition, not good for customers. I wonder if the manager has been reprimanded by his supervisor.
December 21st, 2009 at 9:50 AM
This is absolutley insane and in this day and age I would’nt be surprised if someone (probably a customer) files a law suit against them! None the less I agree with Janice someone should be fired!
December 21st, 2009 at 11:07 AM
Anyone have a copy of the classified for the Sonic manager? He’ll need them!
December 21st, 2009 at 12:20 PM
Not only will the manager need the classified, Sonic will probably need a good lawyer b/c those customers in the store are going to go after them!
December 21st, 2009 at 12:21 PM
I can’t believe he was not terminated on the spot…what an idiot!
December 21st, 2009 at 1:09 PM
I think this is kinda funny, but I’m sure it will eventually cost the manager his job. I wonder how many employees quit before they found out it was a hoax?
December 21st, 2009 at 2:53 PM
WOW! I wonder how many real criminals got away with crimes while the police were at Sonic?
February 18th, 2010 at 3:33 PM
One of the craziest things I ever heard! A ton of people are talking about it. Maybe it was done for the publicity.