BY JANE PRENDERGAST
The Cincinnati Enquirer
FLORENCE -- First, a robber put a gun to his head. Then his boss put a pink slip in his hand.
Randy Brown was on duty at the Olive Garden the night two robbers jumped out of the ceiling after the restaurant closed. The manager put up a fight, pushed the silent alarm, slammed a robber's hands in a door.
"You get robbed, that's one thing," he said. "You get fired? I took that hard."
His mistake: He was in the restaurant alone.
Mr. Brown expected some disciplinary action, maybe a written reprimand. He knew he violated Olive Garden policy by letting the last employee leave him behind. But Mr. Brown thought he might get a break.
But company spokeswoman Cathie Weinberg said Mr. Brown signed a statement in January saying he understood the restaurant's security procedures: Don't enter the restaurant alone; don't leave the restaurant alone. No matter what.
"And if you do any of those things, you're going to be terminated," Ms. Weinberg said from the company's Orlando headquarters. "It seems harsh, but this has helped us stay a secure restaurant for our employees and our guests."
The company's policy goes so far as to say that any employee who finds himself in the restaurant alone should call police, she said. Even if nothing is wrong.
It was late on Mother's Day when Mr. Brown let the last employee go. Mr. Brown expected to be inside for only long enough to straighten his desk.
But that's when he learned he really wasn't by himself. Two men police say had been hiding in the ceiling jumped out, one of them putting a gun to his head. After a struggle, Mr. Brown locked himself in the office.
Former employee Benjamin Adams, 18, and another Florence 18-year-old, Robert "Aaron" Oppenheimer, have been indicted on robbery charges.
Mr. Brown, 43, of Mason, said he understands the policy he signed. He just thought trying to help foil a robbery might work in his favor.
"At least this way, there was only one person involved," he said. "I'm really glad nobody else was in the building."
