MANAGER IS FIRED FOLLOWING ROBBERY

A 19-year-old Cape Girardeau restaurant manager doesn't believe his actions during an armed robbery on Saturday should have cost him his job.

Matt Killian of Scott City, Mo., went into Fazoli's at 5 N. Kingshighway on Wednesday to get his final paycheck after a human-resources manager in Lexington, Ky., said that he should be fired.

"He decided that I turned a small loss into a large loss," Killian said.

When a man wearing a ski mask and carrying a handgun forced his way into the restaurant about 1:20 a.m. as employees were going home, Killian said he was ordered to open the safe. As he fumbled with the combination, the robber struck Killian in the head with his gun, the former manager said.

"I couldn't get the combination to work fast enough for him," Killian said. "I guess I was kind of nervous."

After opening the safe, Killian used a key to open an interior safe, which allowed the robber to escape with several thousand dollars, he said.

Although company policy tells managers and associates to cooperate if they are ever victims of a robbery, Killian violated two other policies during the robbery, said David Craig, who serves as human-resources director and is in charge of security for Fazoli's Restaurants Inc.

Craig refused to discuss what rules Killian had violated.

"But they were policies that, if you don't follow up on these leading up to an incident, you could put yourself and other employees in more danger," Craig said.

Killian explained that he had not set a 10-minute delay for the interior safe, which keeps anyone from gaining immediate access. This was the reason he was fired, Killian said.

But Killian complained that during his four years as an employee, working the past year as a manager, he had only been shown how to activate the 10-minute delay for the safe once.

"This was only because it got locked accidentally," Killian said. "Nobody uses the time delay."

The former manager said he is being fired for something that everyone at the restaurant does.

If the time delay had been working, Killian believes the gunman could have become violent.

"I've had a lot of people tell me that I did exactly the right thing," he said.

Craig stands by his company's policies. Fazoli's 330 restaurants nationally have only had 24 robberies since the franchise began operating in 1988, he said.

"We've had a tremendous track record," Craig said. "I used to work for a fast-food franchise that had a robbery about every fourth day."

Although Killian was unemployed Thursday, he said he has an interview with another restaurant today. He said he might ask more questions about company policy this time, but that is all.

"If they ask me, I'll tell them I still wouldn't do anything differently," Killian said.