Pregnant Popeyes Manager Fired Over Money Stolen By Armed Robber, But Marissa Holcomb Gets Justice

Public outrage followed when a pregnant Popeyes manager was fired over refusing to pay the fast food joint back for the money stolen by armed robbers. Fortunately, Marissa Holcomb received justice since the company has forced the Popeyes franchise to work in her favor.

In a related report by the Inquisitr, the Popeyes robbery was caught on video, although Marissa says the gun-waving robber forced everyone to the floor and demanded access to the store safe.

“By the back of my shirt, he pulled me up and he pushed me to the front. He told me to give him everything out of my safe,” she said.

Holcomb was not able to access the safe, so the Popeyes manager gave away $400, which happened to be all of the money currently in the cash registers. Unfortunately, when she refused to pay back this money, the bosses had the Popeyes manager fired.

“I told them I’m not paying nothing. I just had a gun to me. I’m not paying the money,” she said.

The company which owned the Popeyes franchise, Z&H Foods Inc., claimed Marissa Holcomb was not fired for refusing to pay back the stolen money. Instead, they claim she violated company policy by keeping too much cash in the registers, which allowed the armed robber to get away with more money than was necessary. Holcomb defends against this claim, saying it was a busy lunch day, and she was too busy keeping customers happy instead of shifting money to the safe.

On Wednesady, CEO Cheryl Bachelder out of the Popeyes corporate office in Georgia responded to the controversy over having the pregnant Popeyes manager fired.

“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 met with the owner of the Popeyes franchise and apparently she was offered her job back in addition to $2,000 in backpay.

“He just apologized and pretty much offered me if I wanted to go back to his business and work there again,” she said.

Still, the pregnant woman notes that if the company can have a Popeyes manager fired for such reasons, then she might not feel safe working there in the long term.

“I do need a way to support my kids,” she told KHOU. “I don’t want to go back to a business where I’m treated the same and I just get pushed back out if something else happened.”