"I'm sick and tired of being a sitting duck," Jennifer Wertz told a reporter. When she heard reports of an armed robber nearby, the Albuquerque gas station clear retrieved a gun from her car. Not long after, an armed robber barged into her store and pointed a gun at her. Shen then used hers to shoot him in the chest.
While most gun owners would applaud her action, Circle K reacted by placing her on a two week suspension. Company policy at Circle K, like many chains, says employees should never resist robbers. Wertz, who cares for her three kids and a disabled mother, didn't want to wait to see what the man pointing a gun at her would decide to do.
A gas station worker has been suspended for two weeks for shooting a robbery suspect. But in an interview, the worker said she's sticking to her guns.
“I grabbed my gun from my pocket, I cocked it, and I shot,” said Jennifer Wertz, who shot the robbery suspect. "I'm sick and tired of being a sitting duck."
In front of the Circle K near Eubank and Candelaria, Wertz said on Tuesday that she didn't hesitate to shoot a man who ran into the store on Monday. "He like stepped into the door and pointed the gun at me. I reacted,” she said. Police say she hit 23-year-old Ferron Mendez in the chest. He's expected to live.
Ms. Wertz described Circle K company policy in more detail.
"We are not to chase. We are not to provoke. We are not to do anything. We just stand there and give them what they want and they leave,” Wertz said.
Does that mean employees are supposed to stand there and take a bullet or a knife without resisting as well?
Ms. Wertz says she's looking for a new job now. Surely some business owner in or near Albuquerque would appreciate a clerk with her fortitude and gumption, someone who won't roll over for two-bit hoodlums without a fight.
That's the corporate attitude and quite frankly I'm sick of it. It's easier for them to charge us law abiding honest consumers a little more to pay for the loss of shoplifters and robbers. I have a growing list of companies that I will not spend money with because of this attitude and I'll gladly add circle k to it.