A Rockford, Illinois, Subway employee was caught on camera fighting off an armed suspect with his own gun after he tried to shake her down during an attempted robbery.
The employee, Araceli Sotelo, was suspended after surveillance video of the incident went viral online.
What are the details?
Surveillance video captured the moment an armed suspect walked in and demanded money from Sotelo during the Sunday morning incident,
WTVO-TV reported.
Sotelo was working alone when the suspect, who remains on the loose and is unidentified at the time of this reporting, barged in, showing her his weapon.
“He kind of just showed me his gun, and I was freaking out like, ‘Woah, you can’t do that, please leave,'” she recalled. “[He said] ‘Give me all the money,’ and I said, ‘I do not have any money, like, I do not have any money.’ That is all I had, and he was just like, ‘Give me everything before I hurt you.'”
Sotelo said that she feared for her life and immediately went into fight mode.
“He was smaller than me, so I have that advantage,” she said of the attack, which saw the suspect snatching Sotelo’s purse. “I’m bigger than him, so I could at least put my weight on him, push him, or something.”
Sotelo said that the suspect fell to the ground during the fight as she tried to yank his sweatshirt from his face.
Content warning: Rough language:
ROCKFORD, Ill. (WTVO) – A local Subway worker has been suspended after defending herself during an attempted robber… https://t.co/9tDwREyIV3
— Charlie Luster Street Fights (@Charlie Luster Street Fights)1631376361.0
Sotelo added that the suspect was apparently more interested in finding out what was inside her purse rather than keeping a grip on his gun.
“He dropped [the gun] trying to hold onto my purse, and I ended up pulling his sweatshirt off him and I was like, ‘Show your face, show your face, you are on camera,” she said. “And he was like, ‘Here, you can have your purse back, just give me my stuff.’ He wanted me to give him back his gun and his clothes. I just hit him on the head with it, that is what he was doing to me.”
The suspect was not able to get away with any of the store’s money, but did reportedly break Sotelo’s phone and steal her purse.
Sotelo said that she received a phone call from her employer demanding that all instances of the surveillance video be purged from the internet or she would be suspended. She has claimed that she did not leak the video, but the owner reportedly refused to listen to her.
“I get a call yesterday it was like, ‘If every one of these videos are not taken offline you will be suspended,’ and then I texted them and I’m like ‘How long am I suspended for?'” she said. “They said till everything is removed online. I have no ability to do that.”
She added that she believes the store wanted the incident to remain private, and its owner was attempting to go to great lengths to avoid notifying the company’s corporate office. According to both the
New York Post and TMZ, she has since shared the footage to her TikTok page.
A spokesperson for Subway said that they are aware of the incident, and are deeply concerned, but did not confirm or deny whether Sotelo had been suspended.
“The restaurant owner and management are fully cooperating with the police investigation, and we request patience until that process is complete,” the company said in its statement, noting that it is “in contact with the franchisee to better understand the situation and assist as needed.”
A
GoFundMe page to benefit Sotelo has received more than $15,000 in donations at the time of this reporting.
(H/T:
The Daily Caller)