In late November the body of Mary Hutchinson, the general manager of a Burger King located in the quiet suburban village of Lindenhurst, Ill., was found lying next to the restaurant’s empty safe. She had been strangled. Authorities say Hutchinson had been alone in the restaurant preparing to open for the day and was killed during a robbery. Police arrested a former employee soon afterward and charged him with the murder.
Shocked by the brutal incident, many local residents who previously had patronized the quick-service operation now stayed away. Fox Lake Family Dining, the owner of the Burger King location, attempted to keep the seven-year-old restaurant going, by using promotions, coupons and advertising in an effort to coax customers back. But the damage had been done. In April the franchisee offered the location’s two dozen employees jobs at its other area restaurants and shuttered the Burger King unit.
“The logical conclusion was that there was a stigma attached to the store,” says Christopher Ondrula, vice president of corporate affairs for the Crystal Lake, Ill.-based franchisee.
Although violent crime generally has been trending downward in the United States since the 1990s, crime in the workplace remains an unfortunate fact of life for foodservice operators. Even a simple robbery from an open register drawer can quickly spin a restaurateur’s world off its axis, serving as a sharp reminder that some things are out of their control.
Criminals often see restaurants, particularly quick-service operations, as targets, along with liquor stores, gas stations, convenience stores and taxicabs, and many take jobs at a given location just to scope it out for a potential robbery.
“There are some types of crises that are endemic to particular industries,” says Jonathan Bernstein, president of Bernstein Crisis Management LLC, an international crisis management consulting firm based in Los Angeles. “Robberies and violence are endemic to restaurants, mostly to fast-food restaurants.”
To be sure, the nation has seen a decrease in the number of violent crimes over the past decade or so. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, the violent crime rate fell from a high of 51.2 incidents per 1,000 individuals in 1994 to 21.0 incidents per 1,000 in 2005.
Robberies at foodservice operations also have been decreasing steadily during that period. Eddie Tallon, spokesman for the National Food Service Security Council, said the number of robberies at quick-service restaurants has fallen from 9.37 per 100 outlets in 2000 to 6.3 in 2005. Robberies at full-service restaurants, by comparison, fell from 1.48 per 100 outlets in 2000 to 0.97 in 2005.
But even with the decline in the crime rate, most restaurateurs know they cannot fully safeguard their property from the kind of tragedy that unfolded at the Lindenhurst Burger King—or for that matter at the Wendy’s in Flushing, N.Y., in 2000 or the McDonald’s in San Ysidro, Calif., in 1984. In those cases, the restaurants served only to remind the surrounding communities of the terrible murders committed there, and the operators’ sole recourse was to finally close them.
Yet, even if such events largely tend to be beyond the control of foodservice operators, experts insist there are measures they can take to help safeguard the well-being of their employees, their customers and their businesses. In addition, operators must know how to respond if such an event does occur in their operation.
“You can’t stop it for good,” says Michael Mershimer, chief executive of The Mershimer Group Inc., a Taunton, Mass.-based loss prevention consultant and outsourcer. “But you can make yourself a smaller target than the guy down the street. You can do a lot to minimize the risk of being a victim.”
Timothy Zehring, president of Risk Assessment Services LLC in Higley, Ariz., says: “The fact is, criminals are predators. They stalk their victims and usually prey on easy targets. So you want to examine your property from the eyes of a criminal.”
William Moore, director of safety and security for Eat’n Park Hospitality Group in Homestead, Pa., says operators can take a number of preventive measures at their restaurants. He advises that they maintain adequate lighting in the parking lot and locks on the doors, keep all surrounding shrubbery and landscaping elements trimmed and low, raise the window blinds at night, and install digital surveillance cameras in and around the restaurant.
“Digital surveillance has helped out quite a bit,” he says. “It alone has led to the capture of some assailants.”
The 80-unit family operator, which has not suffered a robbery in more than two years, also employs security personnel at some locations. Those individuals can range from unarmed contract security guards to off-duty police officers who can make an arrest on the spot.
At the same time, Mershimer points out that the majority of robberies occur either in the early morning when a restaurant is opening or late at night when it’s closing. Consequently, no employee should be alone in the store at those times.
“When the store is closing at night, the lights should all be left on, the doors locked and the blinds left up so people on the street can see inside,” says Mershimer, the founder and chairman of the Loss Prevention Executive Study Group, part of the National Restaurant Association’s Executive Study Groups series.
Experts also recommend posting signs prominently in the store that state that a time-delay safe is being used and that employees don’t have access to it, thereby making it clear that threats are pointless.
But while it is in a restaurateur’s best interest to attempt to deter a crime from occurring in the first place, operators also should establish crisis management plans that detail how employees should deal with the crime as it is unfolding and in its aftermath.
Eat’n Park’s Moore says employees are instructed to do whatever they are told by the robber.
“We don’t want people to be heroes,” he says. “We tell them not to agitate the assailant. Give them whatever they want.”
Mershimer suggests that employees might attempt to observe any details of the robber—like a mustache or tattoo—but it should be done casually.
“Don’t stare eye to eye,” he says. “You don’t want him to think you’re memorizing details.”
Employees also are cautioned to not let themselves become hostages.
“Do whatever you have to do to avoid it,” Moore says. “Faint if you have to.”
Once the robber has fled, Eat’n Park employees are instructed to follow a list of procedures. Those include locking the doors so the robber can’t return, ensuring that everyone in the restaurant is unharmed, contacting the police, asking people to write down what they just observed, and not letting anyone touch the door handles and obscure any finger prints.
One person from the restaurant or company also should be designated as a media spokesperson, and all public contact should be channeled through that person.
Chris McGoey, the owner of McGoey Security Consulting in Los Angeles, advises that following a criminal act—particularly one that ends in violence—the restaurateur should focus immediately on how employees and customers were affected by the incident.
WHEN LIFE GIVES YOU LEMONS … Maintain adequate lighting in parking lots. Ensure all locks are working well. Keep all landscaping elements trimmed and low. Raise the window blinds at night. Use digital surveillance cameras in and around the restaurant. Tell employees they should not try to be heroes; they should do whatever the robber says. Be prepared to respond quickly and publicly. In the absence of communication, rumor and innuendo fill the gap. Deal with people’s feelings or they won’t listen to the facts. Give the public the necessary information. Be honest when dealing with employees, customers and the media Allow people to ask questions and give feedback. Offer counseling to employees and any customers who were there at the time a crime occurred. After a crime, survey the property for any sign of negligence. If you find any, contact your attorney before making any changes. Afterward, make changes as promptly as possible.
“The incorrect response is to mop up the blood at the crime scene and get back to business as usual,” McGoey says. “If you’re not concerned with the safety of people, it will come back to haunt you.”
Bernstein agrees, saying if a restaurateur responds “with appropriate compassion and support for the families and concern for public safety, in most cases you will bounce back.”
Experts advise operators to not “play ostrich” and avoid talking about the incident. In the event of a crime, Bernstein advises restaurateurs to follow “the five tenets of crisis communication”:
Be prompt. In the absence of communication, rumor and innuendo fill the gap. Be compassionate. Deal with people’s feelings or they won’t listen to the facts. Be informative. Provide the necessary information. Be honest. Any dishonesty will come back and bite you. Be informative. People need to ask questions and give feedback.
Zehring also recommends that the operator survey the property in the immediate wake of a crime. However, if there appears to be any sign of negligence on the part of the restaurateur, he should contact his attorney before taking any action.
“Don’t trim the trees or add new lighting until after you’ve talked to an attorney,” he says. “That could be considered an admission that the property was unsafe prior to the robbery and could trigger a lawsuit.
“An owner has a legal duty to make sure the property is safe, and negligence can come from failure to maintain a reasonable standard of care.”
On the other hand, the operator should “make sure it is cleared up as promptly as possible,” McGoey says. “Send a message to employees that you are concerned with their welfare and you are taking steps to ensure it won’t happen again.”
But even planning and the best of intentions might not always overcome the lingering shock of the incident. In the case of the Lindenhurst Burger King murder, Ondrula says the company offered grief counseling “to anybody who wanted it. We tried to work closely with employees to get them through the difficult situation.”
The company, which operates 58 Burger Kings and two Popeyes outlets in Illinois, Ohio and Pennsylvania, also took other actions to address the concerns of its employees and the slain woman’s family. It increased the reward for Hutchinson’s murderer from $1,000 to $10,000, and, after the store was reopened quietly, it hosted a benefit day, from which 100 percent of the proceeds were donated to her memorial fund.
But despite the company’s actions, business never returned to prior levels, and about four months after the murder, Fox Lake Family Dining closed the Burger King after reassigning all of the location’s employees to its other units.
“We tried to make a comeback, but it was finally clear to us there was nothing we could do to bring the numbers back,” he said.
“Any time there is a homicide,” Tallon says, “it certainly makes it a difficult decision whether to reopen the business or not. Each circumstance tends to be different.”
Sometimes an incident doesn’t even have to occur in the restaurant itself for there to be negative fallout. In 1982 a line cook at the famous and fashionable Ma Maison in Los Angeles was accused and found guilty of killing his girlfriend, the actress Dominique Dunne. When owner Patrick Terrail was accused by members of the Hollywood community of attempting to help the murderer get a good lawyer, his business suffered and he was blackballed, Terrail says.
Terrail, who still finds the incident painful to discuss, says he lost at least $500,000 in revenue, and finally moved the restaurant two years later.