Publicly traded companies disclose an array of risks to their businesses in annual reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Lawsuits and other legal proceedings are a big one, because they can spur huge monetary awards to plaintiffs.
The latest crime news across the world of 48,000 restaurants*; updated 3:02 p.m.
At a KFC in Russia, one man cold-cocked another diner out cold in an incident caught on video by a witness who described it as “the hardest punch I’ve ever seen.”
In the background of the video, according to the U.K.’s Daily Star, a large man dressed in a blue polo shirt engages in an escalating war of words with another diner in a pink sleeveless vest. The man in the vest appears to try and grab his dining partner, “but it’s clearly a mistake — the man in blue pushes him away “before launching a jaw-crushing right hook.”
The Daily Star story doesn’t say when the fight took place. Here’s the video:
Pizza Hut
In the U.K. 18 miles south of London, a 32-year-old man accused of raping, stabbing and kidnapping a teenage girl last month will face trial in November. The incident started at a Pizza Hut in Epsom, according to news reports.
The man, Costica Voedes of Epsom, has been charged with two counts of wounding with intent, two counts of rape, kidnap, false imprisonment, possession of an offensive weapon, affray and common assault, according to the Epsom Guardian. He will be tried at Guildford Crown Court on Nov. 21, with the trial expected to last seven days.
Voedes did not appear at a pre-trial preparation hearing at Guildford Crown Court yesterday, and so did not enter a plea, the Guardian said.
Surrey police said the charges relate to an incident that took place shortly after 10.30 p.m. on June 17 — a Friday — at the Pizza Hut restaurant on Waterloo Road and Court Recreation Ground. Police say Voedes burst into the outlet and dragged the 17-year-old girl outside, later raping her at a nearby recreation ground, according to the Sun.
A restaurant employee who rushed to intervene was also attacked and injured, the Sun said.
* Yum has 43,000 KFCs, Pizza Huts and Taco Bells in nearly 140 countries; Papa John’s has 4,900 in 37 countries, and Texas Roadhouse has 485 restaurants in five countries. With that many locations, crimes inevitably will occur — with potentially serious legal consequences for the companies.
The latest crime news across the world of 48,000 restaurants*.
In Delaware, State Police are investigating an armed robbery at a New Castle County Papa John’s Thursday afternoon. Around 4:30, a male suspect entered the restaurant off East Basin Road, armed with a knife and demanding money. Employees turned over an undisclosed amount of money, and the suspect fled. There were no injuries, according to Delaware 105.9.
In Palmview, Texas, a man and a woman are facing aggravated robbery charges for allegedly stealing a money bag from a Pizza Hut at gunpoint on May 1. Jailers booked Jose Refugio Guerra Moreno, 23, of Peñitas and Alondra Torres Reynoso, 19.
The restaurant’s assistant manager told authorities she had finished tallying up money from the cash registers, when a man wearing a ski mask entered the restaurant, armed with a hand gun and demanding money. He then fled on foot, according to the Sheriff’s Office. Nobody was injured during the robbery, according to KGBT. Reynoso, his girlfriend, was arrested for allegedly being his accomplish, says KVEO.
* Yum has 43,000 KFCs, Pizza Huts and Taco Bells in nearly 140 countries; Papa John’s has 4,900 in 37 countries, and Texas Roadhouse has 485 restaurants in five countries. With that many locations, crimes inevitably will occur — with potentially serious legal consequences for the companies.
The latest crime news across the world of 48,000 restaurants*. Updated 5:16 p.m.
A 21-year-old worker at a Taco Bell in Redding, Calif., was repeatedly stabbed about 6 p.m. yesterday by a customer armed with a pocket knife, who jumped over the counter after claiming employees stole his credit card.
Police arrested the suspect, Marco Osby, 46, outside the restaurant after customers and others tried to detain him, according to the Record Searchlight. Osby had been released from the Shasta County Jail only three hours earlier after being arrested in a separate incident Tuesday on suspicion of assault.
Osby
The victim was taken to Mercy Medical Center where he was listed in good condition last night. Police said Osby claimed he is a paranoid schizophrenic in need of medication.
In Abilene, Texas, a grand jury indicted a 22-year-old man yesterday on charges of aggravated robbery, robbery, and possession of cocaine in an April 23 robbery of a Taco Bell.
Gongora
The man, Jacob Lee Gongora, forced an employee to enter the manager’s office at gunpoint and demanded money, according to court documents cited by the Abilene Reporter-News. The manager told police Gongora pointed the gun at her, too.
Gongora took the money and fled the restaurant; police located and arrested him later, the newspaper said. He was found carrying a long rifle; a bag of money in his pants, and a small amount of white powder, believed to be cocaine, in his sock, according to court documents.
In Hazelwood, Mo., police were searching for someone who shot a 36-year-old woman in a Taco Bell parking lot yesterday around 2:30 p.m. Officers found the victim with a gunshot wound to her leg, according to KTVI. She was taken to a local hospital to be treated for a non-life threatening injury.
KFC
A shooting last night outside a Seattle-area KFC left two men injured, with one in critical condition. The shooting started in the restaurant’s parking lot in Tukwila, 11 miles south of Seattle, during an argument between two groups of young men. At some point, the groups began firing at each other in what witnesses described as a “gunfight,” according to the Seattle Times.
* Yum has 43,000 KFCs, Pizza Huts and Taco Bells in nearly 140 countries; Papa John’s has 4,900 in 37 countries, and Texas Roadhouse has 485 restaurants in five countries. With that many locations, crimes inevitably will occur — with potentially serious legal consequences for the companies.
The latest crime news across the world of 48,000 restaurants.*
In Twin Falls, Idaho, 38-year-old Seth Samuel Brooks was arraigned Tuesday in County Magistrate Court on a felony count of aggravated assault after he reportedly threatened to use a wrench to beat and kill Pizza Hut employees he said had poisoned his food.
An employee said she was outside behind the restaurant on a cigarette break when a silver Mitsubishi Lancer “drove at her aggressively,” court documents said, according to the Times-News. Brooks got out of the car holding a large wrench and started yelling at her about poisoning his food, the newspaper said.
Brooks
A Pizza Hut delivery driver saw the altercation and approached Brooks, who turned and threatened him, too, the Times-News said. Brooks then got in his car and left. Called to the scene, police arrested him about three miles away.
Brooks admitted to being angry at the employees and told cops he went there to confront them, but said he didn’t think he committed a crime because he didn’t actually hurt anyone, according to the Times-News.
Taco Bell
A deaf New Jersey woman sued the Mexican fast-food chain today in U.S. District Court, claiming she was discriminated against at two separate locations.
The woman, Gina Cirrincione, says she tried to buy food Jan. 11 from a Taco Bell drive-thru in Pleasantville by writing down her order and passing it directly to an employee at the pick-up window. In her lawsuit, she claims she was “berated” by a manager before receiving her order, according to foodie site Eater.
On the second occasion, March 15, the suit says Cirrincione tried using a drive-thru in Atlantic City, but was refused service entirely.
Her complaint cites the Americans With Disabilities Act, which requires businesses to provide goods and services and “make reasonable accommodations” for individuals with disabilities.
* Yum has 43,000 KFCs, Pizza Huts and Taco Bells in nearly 140 countries; Papa John’s has 4,900 in 37 countries, and Texas Roadhouse has 485 restaurants in five countries. With that many locations, crimes inevitably will occur — with potentially serious legal consequences for the companies.
Police responded to a call for help from the restaurant’s employees, and a 17-year-old festival goer told The Evening Standard she felt “very squashed and intimidated” inside.
The trouble started when two “rowdy” men entered the restaurant and jumped ahead of a line of customers who’d already been waiting 15 minutes to place orders, according to the teenager, whom the newspaper didn’t identify by name.
“Then a man queuing heard [an employee] was going to call the police, so he questioned him and then jumped onto the counter, then about five others climbed over and stole chicken,” she said.
Taco Bell
In Lake City, Fla., police say they were forced to use a Taser three times on an unruly man who threw food at employees yesterday morning at a Taco Bell restaurant.
Prouty
Jonathan Prouty, 35, was unhappy (obviously, but that’s all WTLV reports) and got into a fight with customers and employees before leaving the store off of U.S. Highway 90. Officers say they caught the suspect not far away, where he didn’t obey commands to stop and eventually started swinging at officers. That’s when they broke out the Taser.
Texas Roadhouse
Further south in Florida, in Pompano Beach, a 27-year-old man is being held on a $110,000 bond after a fight in a Texas Roadhouse parking lot in Boynton Beach over a cellphone sale that went awry. The man, Christopher Charles has been charged with robbery with a firearm, armed burglary and aggravated battery.
Charles
Charles told police he bought a phone that turned out to be fake through the mobile app OfferUp. He confronted the seller in the restaurant parking lot, where they’d agreed to meet, and a physical altercation followed, according to the Palm Beach Post. Charles showed the alleged victim an unloaded gun during the fight, police said.
Charles was arraigned this morning.
* Yum has 43,000 KFCs, Pizza Huts and Taco Bells in nearly 140 countries; Papa John’s has 4,900 in 37 countries, and Texas Roadhouse has 485 restaurants in five countries. With that many locations, crimes inevitably will occur — with potentially serious legal consequences for the companies.
News about business and culture in Louisville, Ky.
At a KFC in Russia, one man cold-cocked another diner out cold in an incident caught on video by a witness who described it as “the hardest punch I’ve ever seen.”
Boulevard 