A Missouri Sonic manager who could only be described as “hardcore” took employee training to Michael Scott levels by hiring a pretend robber to hold up his store and see how his employees would react, Slashfood reports:
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,” St. Joseph Police Department 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.
If this is a corporate directive (highly doubtful), working at Sonic just got a whole lot more exciting.
(Confidential to non-video game geeks: The pic is Street Fighter’s Guile executing the “Sonic Boom” move).
Sonic Customers Bewildered by Fake Gunman [Slashfood]
(Photo: Stop Podcasting Yourself)
(Thanks, NORMLgirl!)
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Didn’t some church do this during services during collection time to scare people into not “robbing” God?
@jamesdenver: Maybe the quotes should be around God. The money goes to pay for the church, the people who run the church, and sometimes towards community service programs. It does not go to God.
@statgrad: And yet if you say that fewer people give you money.
@statgrad:
No. Way.
Are you serious?
/world falling apart
@statgrad: Thanks for clarifying that. I’ve been under the impression all these years that they put the money in a rocket and launched it into space.
Duh.
@statgrad: Lies. They always throw the money up to him, he just usually gives it back.
@statgrad: I heard that they always deposit the money and write God a check for the full amount.
I wonder how that would have played out in Texas, or any other place where customers/employees may have been armed!
@Fist-oâ„¢: The same thing went through my mind too…
@Fist-oâ„¢: If an armed citizen was there Mr. robber would be dead. Defending yourself is not a crime.
@hi: And, sadly, the shooter would be in jail…even in Texas…
@Fist-oâ„¢:
I’m pretty sure that Missouri issues CCW permits, although they may be more restricted around big metro areas…
@Fist-oâ„¢: I don’t wonder. I know exactly: Mayhem and death. Next question?
Boom! Roasted
Wow, someone didn’t think alerting the local PD and Sheriff was a good idea? Wow. It’s just mind bottling.
@GitEmSteveDave_Isn’tFreshPerked: How does one bottle a mind? And what is a boggled mind anyway? Andy Rooney wants to know.
@GitEmSteveDave_Isn’tFreshPerked: Mind bottling? I know a mind is a terrible thing to waste, and some folks have been known to lose theirs … not to mention that one can mind the store and mind one’s manners … and I could even ask if you mind this comment … but “bottling” a “mind”? How does that work? Inquiring minds want to know … that is, if you don’t mind … !
Sorry about the nitpicking but I couldn’t resist!
@PsiCop: @RandomHookup:
Re: mind bottling.
Just like it sounds.
@GitEmSteveDave_Isn’tFreshPerked: I’m wanting to say this is a 30Rock reference, but I could be wrong. I have so many pop culture bits running through my head I’m amazed I can even function sometimes.
@RecordStoreToughGuy_IsBeing(pur)SuedByAMonster: Zoolander. Zoolander.
Wow. Just wow.
Didn’t a Walgreens (pharmacy I believe) do THE EXACT SAME THING not too long ago?
And of course the clerk is suing…..
@ShruggingGalt: Yup, within the last 2 months IIRC. I wouldn’t be surprised to see the same thing happen here.
How unbelievably stupid. And why does this stupid crap always seem to happen in Missouri?
Oh yes, my bad. The meth lab rate that’s twice as high here as in any other state.
Gaaah!
They didn’t respond with the Sonic ad punch?
I shudder to think of how they field-test their policies concerning employees depositing bodily fluids in the food of customers.
@Trai_Dep: They hire former Pizza Hut, (or Domino’s, can’t remember) and Burger King employees.
Hold back for two seconds, then forward and any punch key.
we had a fire drill at the hospital where I worked 30+ years ago.
The fire dept was not amused. Neither were the patients.
The Asst Administrator who planned this little farkup was fired before the fire trucks had left the parking lot.
OMFG. The manager didn’t at least have half the brains to do this after closing or something? Although even then it would have been a stupid idea. Just less so.
I had a friend who was fooled into believing that an Air Ambulance had crashed. They waited to tell him until he had already started following the checklist, and was in the process of having all available aircraft and law enforcement diverted to search for the crash site in the area. My buddy kept his cool, but everybody else in the office was losing their minds because their friends and coworkers were (to their knowledge) burning in a crumpled ball of wreckage.
@megafly2: “My buddy kept his cool, but everybody else in the office was losing their minds”
Well, that’s how he told the story to you anyway.
Wow. Way to get someone shot by an employee with a concealed-carry permit. I wonder how quickly this Sonic’s insurance company dropped them due to excessive risk factors.
@manevitch: That was my first thought…I as a restaurant manager (who also carries) shudder at the thought of the owner pulling something like this. We have 3 managers and 2 of us carry…We would have one dead “bad guy” very quickly…a very upset owner and a very upset “bad guy” family…
“Today, smoking is going to save lives.”
Wow. Hopefully Stanley didn’t have a heart attack during this one.
Kind of reminds me of the coach at my HS that tried to motivate his players by faking being shot… [www.nytimes.com]
Why does this remind me about the joke where the lawyer pays his deceased friend back by putting a check “for the full amount” of the debt in his casket?
Given that they have burned up their Crying Wolf card, would now be a good time to rob them?
There’s an interesting new line of work here. Where do you go to get training on how to conduct an armed robbery simulation? What sort of money can you make doing this? Is this job in the Occupational Outlook Handbook?
From when I worked at the sonic in my area the manager on night shift would always lock the place if there were cars around the parking lot after closing time. I had assumed that was company policy but apparently not?
Oh god I live in Saint Joseph. I didn’t hear about this until I read the article here but then again I don’t watch the crappy local news station or read our sorry excuse for a newspaper. This crazy stunt doesn’t surprise me considering the amount of stupid in the city. I attend Missouri Western State University and I can’t wait until I graduate and get the hell out! In the mean time I need to find out which Sonic this was so I can avoid it like the plague. I don’t want a large side of OMFG I’M GOING TO DIE with my hamburger.
I believe you’d need a permit do something so incredibly awesome and hardcore to your employees…corporate will still get sued.
They arrest the McDonald’s 911 calling lady but not this manager? He not only wasted the time and resources of police, but also put people in danger.
This is the type of training that should be announced even if you want for a security company. Otherwise, the training has a good chance of ending up legal action, damage, even death.
Just think of the ramifications of a person in the store with a legal conceal gun, taking actions which are covered under state and federal laws but result in a death.
Not very thought out and most likely not review by any lawyers.
@pecan 3.14159265: I don’t believe any bullets flew, causing his arm to fly off.
“and that’s what happens when you don’t wash your hands after using the bathroom!”
@pecan 3.14159265: An Office AND an Arrested Development reference in one post!… Consumerist just made my day.
@GitEmSteveDave_Isn’tFreshPerked: Reserved is one thing. If someones life is on the line there is no time to be reserved. ANYONE in their right mind would have feared for their own or the others lives.
@Shadowman615: Yes, but I think Mr. FreshPerked was suggesting that the manager should have called them before the fake assault, rather than waiting for a panicked customer to do it during. . .
@Shadowman615: Yeah but they should have been informed of the training exercise prior to it’s execution.
@Shadowman615:
I think SteveDave meant “in advance”.
@korybing: So do they conceal their guns to hide them from the bass until close enough for a good shot? Imagine all the intrigue I miss from not being a bass hunter.
@futuresuperbowlMVPJayCutler: Do you know the amount of mental math involved to determine the water depth, refraction of light vs the actual location of the bass? Bass hunting is doctorate level work.
@failurate: true enough. i’ve been bow hunting for bass. i missed it and hit a softshell turtle once. that was no fun.
[no, i never actually managed to hit a fish either, i was 10. and the turtle was fine, i just nicked him]