Texas Popeyes Offers Pregnant Manager Job Back After Firing Over Money

The mother of three had been asked to cover the $400 taken during armed robbery.

ByABC News
April 23, 2015, 6:30 PM

— -- A Popeyes fast-food eatery manager who was fired after she refused to cover the money stolen during an armed robbery has been offered her job back, but she's not sure that she'll take it.

Marissa Holcomb, a five-months-pregnant mother of three, was working at the Channelview, Texas, restaurant March 31 when a person ran in with a gun.

Holcomb said the man told her to give him everything in the safe but she only had access to the registers, which she then emptied. The armed robber escaped with almost $400.

She said that days after the robbery, she was told by one of the managers that she had to return the stolen money or be fired.

"I told them I'm not paying anything," she told Houston station KHOU-TV. "I just had a gun to me. I'm not paying the money. ... I don't think it's right."

ABC News was unable to reach her today.

Amin Dhanani, the owner of franchisee Z&H Foods, said Holcomb was fired not because she was robbed, but because she hadn’t emptied the registers frequently enough during her shift, which is company policy, according to KHOU-TV.

Z&H Foods said that if she had followed policy, the robber would not have made off with so much cash. Holcomb countered that it was a busy time of day for Popeyes and that she was moving money as fast as she could.

By Wednesday, however, Z&H Foods seemed to have had a change of heart. Holcomb met with Dhanani that day and was offered not only her job back but also $2,000 in back pay.

In a statement, Z&H Foods said: "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. We have let them down and are committed to do better."

Popeyes CEO Cheryl Bachelder said in a atatement, “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.”

Holcomb said that while she needed the money to help care for her family, she did not want to return to a job where she was treated poorly. She told KHOU she had started to fill out job applications.

"I do need a way to support my kids,” Holcomb said, “but I don't want to go back to a business where I would be treated the same.”