A Las Vegas bartender was robbed at gunpoint and then forced to repay his company the stolen money, according to a lawsuit filed by the employee.
Edward Parker was working at the Lodge Hualapai early Dec. 4, 2020, when a gunman entered, ordered him "to kneel on the ground and put his hands behind his head while the armed assailant took all the money that was at the bar," according to a Clark County civil complaint filed last week.
"Edward was terrified during the ordeal and feared for his life" as the gunman got away with $3,937.35, the lawsuit says.
His bosses then presented Parker with a "repayment form" and, worried he'd be fired, he signed it, the lawsuit claims.
It alleges that his paycheck was docked $300 at a time before the nearly $4,000 debt was paid off by the end of June.
Despite being forced into the repayment plan and suffering "panic attacks" and "major anxiety," Parker kept working, the lawsuit said.
In July, he was demoted to "extra board" status — meaning he'd be used only for on-call work — and he has never been asked to work there again, according to the lawsuit.
Two people were arrested in connection with the robbery, and "there is no evidence whatsoever that Edward knew these individuals or had anything to do with their actions" on Dec. 4, 2020, the suit says.
A Las Vegas police spokesman told NBC News on Tuesday that two people have been arrested for an early morning Dec. 4 robbery at an address matching the location of the Lodge Hualapai.
The spokesperson declined to reveal additional details but said neither is named Edward Parker.
A lawyer and other representatives for the Lodge Hualapai couldn't immediately be reached for comment Tuesday.
Prodigy195 on February 14th, 2022 at 18:10 UTC »
In stories like this my first thought is always "do these people not realize that the internet is a thing?"
Is your business potentially taking a huge publicity hit worth $4000? Taking the bartender out of it, getting robbed as a business sucks. You're likely close on margins as a restaurant/bar and $4k is still a good chunk of money, at least to me.
But that is easily money I'd lose in order to keep positive or even neutral publicity. The business could have posted online that one of their employess suffered a traumatic experience and it would be great if the community would come by the restaurant to support. Prob would have make their money back easily AND gotten some good press.
Instead they pull this and now their name is getting (rightfully) dragged through the mud. It's just mindblowing that we still see these blatant dumb publicity choices from businesses.
newkindofdem on February 14th, 2022 at 17:22 UTC »
People like that need their business license revoked.
Tallywacka on February 14th, 2022 at 17:20 UTC »
The articles actually even worse then the headline, after he paid the money back he was demoted