MEMPHIS, Tenn. — “He won’t even let her past the register. I’m watching it right now,” Mapco Mart store manager Kandess Pierce said.
The video is hard to see, but what was clear is what employees said happened inside a Mapco Mart on Jackson Avenue Saturday.
“He was like *EXPLETIVE* give me the money,” Charwanda Seymour, a store clerk, said.
Surveillance cameras captured a man walking behind the counter and holding up his hand as if he had a weapon.
“I pulled the silent alarm, and the silent alarm didn’t do anything,” Seymour explained. “The police didn’t arrive until like 35 minutes after everything was going on.”
Seymour said it was another worker and customer who dialed 911.
A good Samaritan stepped in to help before officers arrived.
“Her husband came in and grabbed him and was like leave away from back here, you know you ain’t supposed to be back here,” Seymour said.
“If it wasn’t for a nice customer intervening, my employee could have lost her life,” Pierce said.
Pierce got the call around 3 p.m.
After shutting down the store for safety, Pierce told WREG she and the mostly female staff have gotten threats from people in the neighborhood for months.
“That I’ll get shot up, this hood is organized. If they want something to happen to the store, it’ll happen,” Pierce said.
Employees said they reached out to management and the company for help.
“We have been informing y’all that this is going to happen for the last two months, and y’all haven’t done nothing,” Pierce said.
Workers said they hope the incident will be a wake-up call for tighter security to prevent something like this from happening again.
“It’s hurting. It’s bothering me,” Seymour said.
Police issued the following partial statement: “Due to no weapon being used, nothing being taken, no injuries and the intent of the suspect being to get medical attention a robbery report would not be taken.”
Therefore, no attempted robbery charges were issued.
WREG reached out to Mapco’s corporate office Saturday afternoon but never heard back from the company.
