Marissa Holcomb, a pregnant Popeyes employee who was robbed at gunpoint during a shift last month, is demanding $5.5 million from the company for the emotional distress she experienced when they fired her afterward.
According to USA Today, Holcomb was told by the Houston franchise owner, Amin Dhanani, that she was fired because she broke company policy by leaving too much money in the register drawer multiple times.
When a robber came in on March 31, there was $400 in the drawer, and he made off with all of it. Holcomb said she intended to move some money from the register to the safe, but the store took in a lot of cash during the hour just before the robbery.
After Holcomb's story made headlines, Dhanani apologized personally and publicly to her, and offered her job back — with back pay.
"Among other things, we will compensate her for the lost time from work and have invited her to rejoin our company," read part of the apology. "We deeply regret the way this matter was handled. We are committed to continuing to work with Ms. Holcomb, and we apologize to her, our employees, the public, and other franchise operators of the Popeyes system."
Holcomb, a pregnant mother of three, said that the offer was not nearly enough, and that the firing ordeal entitles her to damages for emotional distress.
"Even though you [Popeyes] have offered to give the job back to her only to save face after experiencing bad publicity, the damage from your egregious conduct has been done," read a letter from her attorney, Marc Bozeman.
According to the letter, Dhanani has 30 days to respond or a civil suit will be filed.
Holcomb starts a new job at a different Popeyes location on Thursday.
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