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Lic: PI-11319

Armed Robbery Homicide

Burger King Fast-Food Restaurant

Burger King Robbery Homicide

I learned about a robbery homicide at a Burger King restaurant in Lindenhurst, Illinois. I was told that the manager was found strangled on the floor in a pool of blood next to an empty safe. Apparently, this 45-year old female victim opened the Burger King restaurant alone at 4am to prepare the bank deposit and take inventory. This same manager had been the victim of another armed robbery at a Burger King restaurant in the nearby City of Antioch nine months earlier where she was also forced to open the safe.

Homicide investigators found the back door to the restaurant locked, but the burglar alarm system turned off. The deceased manager was discovered at 5:15am by another Burger King employee who arrived to work. The police are still investigating.

Initial Impressions

My first impression was that this manager was accosted at the point of entry when she arrived alone in the dark. The fast-food industry has known since the 1970s that armed robbery risk is highest at opening and closing time. The industry also realizes that allowing restaurant managers immediate access to the safe makes them a target for armed robbers and workplace violence.

My second impression was that this robbery homicide might be an inside job carried out by a current or former employee. The fast-food industry has known for years that a percentage of their reported armed robberies are perpetrated by people employed within these restaurants.

An Inside Job

Within a few days, the reasons why this particular restaurant was selected as a robbery target because apparent. It seems that the robbery suspect once worked at this Burger King as a maintenance man and had inside information about all the restaurant security procedures.

The police learned that the robbery suspect had served at least two prison terms in 1983 and 1996 for sexual assault, weapons charges, and aggravated restraint. He had also been charged with murdering a family in 1982, but had his life-sentence conviction overturned due to evidence collection problems.

Screening & Training Prevents Robberies

Robbery deterrence starts during the employment screening process. Criminal background and reference checks tell prospective applicants that they better not lie on their employment application. If a restaurant is consistent with this policy the word will get out on the street and bad applicants won’t even bother to apply. This former Burger King employee, turned robber, should have been rejected during the screening process. How on earth did a man with his extensive criminal record get hired at Burger King?

During training, all new employees should be taught about restaurant robbery prevention procedures. These procedures send a message to employees that Burger King has robbery prevention procedures including cash control, alarm system, and video surveillance. This training should tell employees that excess cash is stored overnight in a time-lock, time-delay drop safe that cannot be immediately opened by the restaurant manager or that daily deposit can only be retrieved by an armored car guard. If these common fast-food security procedures were implemented and taught to all employees, this robbery and murder probably would not have occurred.

Good robbery deterrence procedures should make it clear that large amounts of money were not readily available to anyone, including the manager. This is accomplished by using a time-lock or time-delay feature on a safe so it won’t open until 5am, for example, or requires a waiting period of say twenty-minutes before it can be opened. It is well settled that most robbers won't wait around for twenty-minutes for a safe to unlock. This fact should be communicated to all employees and to the public by highly visible signage and the practice of dropping all large bills into a drop safe.

It's possible that robbery prevention procedures were not implemented at this restaurant or maybe the procedures were kept secret and the robber incorrectly perceived that a lot of cash was available in the safe.

Was this Robbery Preventable?

A comprehensive robbery prevention program has existed for years in the fast-food industry. Compliance with basic robbery prevention procedures should have prevented this robbery and murder of the store manager. I will wait for the police investigation to be completed before rendering a final opinion.

Did this restaurant operate at high-risk by not having adequate security systems and procedures? There are unanswered questions whether the video system was operational or if the former employee still had key to the back door. Why was the manager scheduled to open the restaurant alone at 4am? Sometimes limited-hour franchise operations cut corners in low-sales restaurants to save payroll expenses. The fast-food industry adopted specialized security procedures long ago for opening and closing non-24-hour restaurants as standard operating procedure to prevent robberies.

I’m not going to second-guess what could or should have been done to prevent this crime until all the facts become know. Evidence about what security systems and procedures existed at this Burger King Restaurant will be presented during the criminal investigation and subsequent lawsuit that will undoubtedly be filed on behalf of the grieving family of the victim.

What do you think?

Armed Robbery Fast-Food Restaurants

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