ALBUQUERQUE, NEW MEXICO — Jennifer Wertz was a Circle K employee who was seeing multiple robberies in the area over the past few weeks. Being proactive, Wertz brought her gun to work so that she had a fighting chance if she were ever robbed.
It’s a good thing she did, because robbed she was.
Local news reports;
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.
Wertz says she had the gun at work clearly visible on her hip because it’s become a dangerous place to be. “Robberies have been going on like this for the past few weeks. They have done nothing to protect me. And I felt the need to protect myself,” Wertz said.
She says Circle K suspended her for two weeks for shooting the suspect. She’s quitting and now looking for a new job. Wertz doesn’t like company policy in these types of situations.
Company policy tells employees to give in to a robber’s demands, which is sometimes a non-event. But here at Concealed Nation, we’ve seen many instances where the bad guy will shoot just for the hell of it.
“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.
Chasing is never a good idea, and provoking can also lead to undesirable outcomes, but defending oneself is a whole other ballgame. It’s fair game.
There aren’t any Circle K’s in my area but if there were, I’d avoid them as a matter of principal. It’s a shame that employees are punished for self-defense, but that’s the way of the Circle K world. If it were my business, I’d want the bad guys to know that hey, maybe some of my employees are armed. Maybe they’re ready to fight back.
Then, they’d go rob the unarmed stores instead.
Circle K just put a bulls-eye on their locations.
