Anyone looking for a job knows that interviews are awful. Sometimes people yell at you, sometimes they forget you exist, and sometimes you end up fleeing the building thanking whatever deity you worship that you never have to return. And sometimes, but very, very rarely, you stop a robbery, land the job on the spot, and then make national headline news. That’s what happened to 18-year-old Devin Washington when he was interviewing for a position at Popeyes in New Orleans over the weekend.
Washington rolled into the interview not expecting anything out of the ordinary — except maybe a free meal, because that would be awesome — when something very unexpected happened: a man asked for change and then, when the cash register was opened, tried to steal everything inside and get out before anyone could call the authorities. Fortunately, Washington and the manager, Danyanna Metoyer, stopped him before he could get away with anything except the smell of chicken all over his clothes.
From The Associated Press, via Nola.com:
Police said in a news release that assistant manager Dominique Griffin grabbed the man’s arm, but he broke away from her and headed for the door.
But Metoyer was there to block him. “My upper-body strength was stronger than his,” she said Sunday morning.
“We hadn’t made hardly any money, Metoyer said. “He wasn’t going to take the $300 to 400 we probably had made. We needed our money,” she added.
Washington, who could have chosen to stay seated and done nothing, took action instead: He grabbed the man and “bent his arm back,” not knowing whether the man was carrying a weapon. Then Washington, Metoyer, and assistant manager Dominique Griffin waited together until the police showed up to take the would-be robber, 50-year-old Pablo Ciscart, into custody. The good news? Now Washington can go back and work at that Popeyes every day. It can only go up from here, right?
According to Metoyer, she had already chosen to hire Washington before he assisted in the apprehension of a criminal. His help in a time of emergency, however, sealed the deal. Let’s just all hope that corporate is delighted by the news that they have such loyal employees instead of firing everyone for trying to stop a criminal. (Let’s also hope that Washington was given more food than he could carry when he left the restaurant after his interview was officially over.)
