0:00

What's up everybody . Welcome to

0:02

the titanium vault . I'm your

0:04

host , rj Mason . Third , and

0:07

today I'm here to tell you a story

0:09

about the time that I got robbed for

0:12

$27 . Now

0:15

, this didn't happen anytime recently . This

0:17

is from way back in my

0:19

Pizza Hut days . I

0:22

was trying to remember exactly how many years

0:24

ago what's man makes me I'm

0:27

aging myself here . I

0:29

believe it was somewhere around 15

0:31

to 16 years ago , but I've

0:34

talked about the story a few times . But

0:37

I really kind of wanted to break

0:39

down exactly what happened , what

0:42

my feelings were after

0:44

, and now , 15

0:46

, 16 years later , my

0:48

big takeaway from a business perspective

0:51

about what happened when I got robbed for

0:53

$27 . So here's what

0:56

happened . I was a Manager

0:58

at Pizza Hut . I was not

1:00

quite a general manager yet . It

1:02

was somewhere in between my shift manager and

1:04

my assistant manager . Days I Was

1:08

closing the restaurant and the way that this

1:10

work was is as the night

1:12

progressed , you let

1:14

your staff off to save on labor costs

1:16

, so you eventually cut your

1:18

Customer representatives

1:20

that were answering the phones . You got rid

1:22

of the people that were helping you clean the restaurant

1:25

. You got rid of your cooks and

1:27

eventually dwindled all the way down to

1:29

where it was just the manager and a

1:32

Closing or two closing

1:34

drivers for deliveries . Now

1:36

I'm sure things have changed now at Pizza Hut

1:38

with things like Uber Eats and Door

1:40

Dash and things like that , but that was the

1:43

way that this restaurant back then

1:45

Performed . So

1:47

we're at the end of the night . It's

1:50

the last order I

1:52

made the pizza . The pizza comes out , I

1:54

cut it , put it in the box , tell

1:57

my delivery driver a the orders up

1:59

. He finishes doing the dishes

2:01

, grabs it , checks

2:04

the map where he's going . This is pre GPS

2:07

on cell phone days . It was a long time ago

2:10

, man and he leaves

2:12

. What had happened is is

2:14

the two gentlemen that robbed

2:16

me had stood

2:19

outside of the restaurant as

2:21

if they were waiting on their order and

2:24

watch delivery drivers

2:26

walk up to the door and

2:28

punch in the code

2:30

and Then come in

2:32

throughout the night . So they've actually

2:35

just figured out what the code

2:37

was to the delivery driver door

2:39

At this point , because

2:41

I was alone Inside

2:43

of the restaurant . I had already locked

2:46

the front door , so the only person

2:48

that was supposed to even have

2:50

the ability or access to come in

2:52

was an employee through that delivery

2:55

driver door . So delivery

2:57

driver leaves . I've got

2:59

some music blaring on the radio and

3:02

, if you don't know , I listen to heavy

3:04

rock music . Not the most comforting

3:07

music to be blaring over a radio

3:09

when you get robbed at knife point . I Walked

3:12

around the corner , I grabbed the pan from

3:14

the pizza that I just cooked , I

3:16

took it to the back sink to

3:19

wash it and as

3:21

soon as I am putting

3:23

the pan in the little Dishwashing

3:26

tray , I push it in , shut

3:29

the dishwasher . I actually hear

3:31

the code punched in the door

3:33

and the door open

3:36

and I look and it's . The

3:38

door is right in my

3:40

line of sight . It's probably

3:42

about , I don't know , 20

3:44

yards away from me we were a long

3:47

, skinny pizza hut and

3:49

as soon as the door open

3:52

, I see two guys wearing

3:54

black hoodies , mask and

3:56

carrying knives . You know

3:58

they start screen screaming profanities

4:01

. You know I put

4:04

your hands in there . Blah , blah , blah , blah . Now

4:07

what's crazy about this is you know that

4:09

scene on Crocodile Dundee

4:12

where it's like you call that

4:14

a knife , this is a knife . I have no

4:16

Australian accent , so sorry

4:18

. Normally I'm fairly decent in

4:20

accents , but I don't have an Australian accent . He

4:22

pulls out the big blade . I could have done that

4:24

because I was literally standing by all of our

4:26

dishes and we had some massive knives

4:28

right there . But I kept

4:30

my composure , put my hands

4:32

in there and said I don't want any trouble . They

4:36

ran up , they made me get down the ground and they

4:38

put the knife up to my throat . I didn't have

4:40

the big beard at the time . They put the

4:42

knife up to my throat and

4:44

they made me get down on my hands and knees

4:46

because they didn't want anybody to see

4:48

through the windows what was going on . So

4:51

I essentially had to crawl on my hands and knees from

4:53

the back dishwasher to

4:56

the cash register , which

4:58

was behind the

5:01

front desk so you can't actually

5:03

see it from the front , where we actually kept our money

5:05

. And they made me open

5:08

the cash register , which I still remember this moment

5:10

of like . They wouldn't even let me see the keyboard

5:12

, but I had opened the cash register so

5:14

many times that I didn't even have to see it

5:16

. I could just feel it and it was like boom , f1

5:19

, down , enter F2

5:21

, and then it opened the cash register . And

5:24

so I did that . They opened

5:26

the cash register and they grabbed $27

5:29

out of the cash register because I had been dropping

5:32

money in the safe throughout . That was like

5:34

one of our responsibilities as the manager

5:36

is to make sure that there

5:38

wasn't a ton of cash left over in

5:40

case you were robbed , which is crazy

5:42

to think about . So they

5:44

grabbed the $27 and they freak

5:47

out . They're like where's all the money

5:49

? No , it's in the safe . So

5:52

, upfront , we did

5:54

have two cash registers that

5:57

were never used . So

5:59

they wanted me to open those , which

6:01

was a lot more difficult

6:03

because they weren't on the screens to

6:05

be open . So I had to go

6:07

. I had to get them to the appropriate screens . I'm

6:09

minding now we're upfront where

6:12

literally anyone on

6:14

East Chase Parkway or outside the

6:16

restaurant could see what was happening . So

6:19

they really wanted me to stay down low and

6:21

I'm struggling to figure it out At

6:23

this point in time . One guy has

6:25

the knife to my throat . He's telling me what

6:27

to do and the other one is running

6:29

around the restaurant trying to figure out if there's

6:31

anything valuable for

6:34

them to steal , right . So

6:37

I opened the register that

6:39

had no money in it . I told him had no money . He

6:41

sees it . He makes me open the other one it has

6:43

no money and then he tells me to open the safe . Well

6:46

, this is a time lock safe . It could not possibly

6:49

be opened until 9 am the next morning

6:51

. I tell him he

6:54

makes me take my keys out , makes

6:56

me put the key on there , makes me punch in my

6:58

code . I punch in the code . Still

7:01

it says right there time

7:04

lock safe is locked , cannot be opened

7:06

until 9 am . At

7:08

this point in time I don't know

7:11

if he was on drugs , I don't

7:13

know if it was just an emotional

7:15

reaction , but he was livid

7:18

. He was at the point where he

7:20

was ready to do bodily

7:22

harm . Now what he had done is is , when

7:25

I had opened the cash register above

7:27

the safe and then he told me

7:29

to open the safe , he essentially pushed me

7:31

from like me squatting in a catcher

7:34

position to where he pushed me , where

7:36

I'm like very vulnerable

7:38

and sitting on my butt

7:40

and he's holding the

7:42

knife like this to my throat , and

7:45

he actually started screaming at me and

7:48

calling me names and kind of

7:50

losing his composure and he started

7:52

to press the knife

7:54

against my throat . And actually this was the

7:57

first time I got really scared

7:59

that something I

8:02

can be physically harmed . You know

8:04

, I thought up this point . They just wanted

8:06

money . But this was like hold on , he might be

8:08

crazy enough to like try to kill me or just

8:11

hurt me . So I actually swatted

8:13

the knife away and I said yo , dude

8:16

, I do not wanna die for pizza . That's money

8:18

. Okay , that

8:20

you can have it for all I care

8:22

, I just I can't get it . I

8:25

can't . There is no way for me to

8:27

get you the money and I don't know

8:29

why . But the

8:31

next fear that I had was is just

8:33

out of pure frustration

8:36

, he was going to stab me in my thighs

8:38

because of the way that I was sitting

8:40

and because of where he was

8:42

and the way that he was holding the knife . At this point

8:44

I was really worried that he was just going

8:46

to randomly to stab me to see

8:49

if I would react different to give him money

8:51

. And it was

8:53

right at this moment that I

8:55

started to have these thoughts

8:57

and fear and I kind of was like positioning

9:00

myself to either push

9:02

him away or try

9:04

to defend myself . The other

9:06

guy came around and goes dude , he ain't

9:09

lying , we gotta get out of here . We've been here for too

9:11

long . And so the other guy that

9:13

was not like as emotionally invested

9:15

into getting the money , because he had

9:17

been running around the store grabbing who knows what

9:20

or looking through what I mean there wasn't anything

9:22

to get except some pepperoni and dough

9:24

and sauce , and I mean there's just there's not a

9:26

whole lot of valuable things that you can steal from

9:28

inside of a pizza . He

9:30

had determined it was time for them to go . So

9:33

they made me it the out my pockets . They

9:35

stole my cell phone . Funny enough , they

9:37

didn't steal my car keys in my car

9:39

, they sold my cell

9:42

phone . They took my wallet

9:44

and then they

9:46

ran out the door . And so as soon

9:48

as they ran out the door , like

9:51

, I followed behind them to see where they

9:53

were going , cause I knew they

9:55

only had knives at this point . And so

9:57

it was like , well , I'm gonna go out . And I saw they

9:59

ran literally straight to the

10:01

left across the street , into

10:03

the apartment complex that was next door to

10:05

the pizza hut , and ran up in there . Now

10:09

what was crazy is is that we had a wingstop

10:11

right next door and there was

10:13

multiple police officers eating

10:15

inside of that wingstop . I

10:17

ran inside , I locked the , I dead bolted

10:20

the door at this point , so I knew that there

10:22

was no way for them to get in . I hit the panic button

10:24

, which immediately notifies

10:27

the police department , and

10:29

911 then calls and

10:31

says you know , was this panic

10:34

button pushed on purpose ? Yes , it was . I'm just

10:36

robbed a knife point . Okay , the police are dispatched

10:38

. On the way Police got there

10:40

, I told them right where they went . I'm like

10:42

they went right across the street to that apartment complex

10:45

and they essentially told me hey , there's nothing that

10:47

can be done . We're sorry that this

10:49

traumatic experience happened but , yeah

10:52

, basically

10:55

sorry , that's a

10:58

shitty thing to happen , but there's no way in the world

11:00

we're gonna go over there , we're gonna find them . They

11:02

were masked . I couldn't tell

11:04

them anything other than their ethnicity

11:06

and general height

11:09

and weight and what they sounded like

11:11

when they were screaming at me . Now , that's

11:13

the traumatic event . They got $27

11:15

and some things out of my pocket . Everything

11:18

was replaceable . I didn't get hurt

11:20

. Thank God I

11:23

was able to keep my composure and

11:25

and not escalate

11:28

the situation moving

11:31

forward . Then the point me bringing

11:33

this up on the podcast . I

11:36

showed up . I continued to show up

11:38

for the job . It

11:40

was my time made a living , so

11:43

I was supporting myself at the time . You

11:45

know , in my , my early 20s , I

11:48

had a responsibility as a manager . Luckily

11:53

enough , the the general manager

11:55

that I was working for was kind

11:57

enough to move me to a lot more opens

11:59

than closing . Now I will say I still

12:01

have like some scary moments

12:04

, some herky-jerky moments , where

12:06

I'd be in the restaurant alone

12:08

and the door would open . You

12:11

know PTSD , if you will

12:14

, from the situation , but I continued to

12:16

show up and I never thought about quitting the job

12:18

. Now the

12:23

point in me bringing up this on podcast

12:26

is is a couple years

12:28

later I've been promoted to a general

12:30

manager to go over a restaurant

12:32

, essentially like a flip . I've used this analogy

12:35

before , where you know if you're a general

12:37

manager , you get promoted . You're essentially

12:39

get promoted for one or two reasons . The person

12:41

before you've retired or quit , or

12:43

they got fired because

12:46

the restaurant was in disarray . And that's what

12:48

I got . I got a restaurant

12:50

that was in disarray and it was my job to

12:52

resurrect it , to flip it , turn

12:54

it into a good restaurant again , and

12:56

gentlemen from

12:59

Jacksonville , florida , flew

13:01

in from corporate and essentially

13:04

said you're nothing but an overglorified shift

13:06

manager and that was my last day at Pizza Hut . I quit

13:08

right after that . And what's crazy

13:10

is is I look back and what spurred

13:12

me to have this on the podcast today

13:14

is one I want to share more the

13:17

story my story , it's

13:19

, you know , made me the person I am

13:21

today , and this is obviously

13:24

a frightening

13:26

, traumatic experience in my life

13:28

. But the big

13:30

takeaway that I have for this moment is is

13:32

that a potentially

13:35

life-altering moment

13:37

right being robbed at Knife

13:40

Point such a traumatic experience

13:42

I never once questioned

13:45

continuing the job . That

13:47

was never even a conversation in

13:49

my mind . But being

13:52

disrespected , not

13:54

feeling appreciated

13:56

by the corporation

13:59

that was working for instantly

14:02

severed my eight-year

14:04

tenure ship at Pizza Hut instantly

14:07

. And as business

14:09

owners , people that want to grow teams

14:12

, think about that . Maybe

14:15

I don't have the same reaction as most people

14:17

. Maybe most people , that traumatic

14:19

experience would have been the end of your tenure

14:22

ship , but think

14:24

about how important respect

14:26

and being appreciated

14:29

was to me . It

14:31

made me alter my

14:34

career . It

14:37

led to this moment where

14:40

now I control and

14:42

am able to create my own

14:45

reality . That's why I wear

14:47

that on my wrist every

14:49

single day create your own reality

14:51

. I had

14:54

no control over

14:57

my reality , my destiny

15:00

, and I realized that

15:02

the moment that that man

15:04

came in and as I'm sitting

15:06

here and I'm bleeding over resurrecting

15:09

this restaurant and

15:12

I am hiring and firing managers and

15:14

I am training the staff and

15:16

I am essentially

15:18

rebuilding it from the ground up

15:20

. I got told we don't

15:23

appreciate you , I

15:26

don't have respect for

15:29

what you bring to our organization

15:31

. That man knew nothing about me

15:33

. That

15:35

man had no idea that just

15:37

two years prior to that moment , I

15:39

worked 47 straight

15:42

days for that

15:44

company without a day off . 47

15:47

straight days not

15:52

having control of my destiny

15:54

made me realize I've

15:56

got to get out of here . I

15:59

have to go have the ability

16:01

to create my own reality as

16:04

a business owner . Take

16:06

this story and realize

16:08

the importance of appreciating

16:11

and respecting those that choose

16:13

to work for your organization , that

16:17

are sitting there and

16:19

bleeding for your company

16:21

. Allow

16:25

them to feel

16:28

like they control their

16:30

destiny , because

16:32

up until that moment I felt like I did

16:34

. I had the ability to work hard

16:36

and gain their respect and

16:38

gain their trust to then get promoted

16:41

from delivery driver

16:43

to shift manager , from shift manager

16:45

to assistant manager , from assistant manager

16:48

to general manager . I

16:50

don't know when that was ever going to stop . I

16:53

knew it wasn't going to be what I was going to do forever

16:55

. I knew at some point in time I wanted to be an entrepreneur

16:57

, but I was enjoying the experience of learning

16:59

how to run a business for a Fortune

17:02

500 company . What

17:04

ended that was the

17:06

moment that I felt disrespected

17:09

by the corporation and

17:12

not appreciated for what I had given them

17:14

. My

17:16

big takeaways from being

17:19

robbed for $27 all

17:21

these years later is

17:23

I no longer have PTSD about being

17:25

robbed . I no longer have bad

17:27

dreams about having a knife held to my throat

17:30

. I can easily talk about it and

17:32

tell the story , but

17:34

I could still vividly remember

17:37

the feeling inside

17:39

that was given to me when

17:42

I was disrespected , and

17:44

I realize that all of my

17:46

efforts are not

17:49

appreciated by this job . I

17:53

have to

17:55

find a way to

17:58

create my own reality . That

18:00

is the takeaway

18:02

I have for being robbed for

18:05

$27 . If

18:07

this story resonated with you , if you appreciated

18:10

me sharing this story , let me know in

18:12

the comments . Make sure you like the video

18:14

. Subscribe to my channel . If you're listening

18:16

on Apple , make sure you

18:18

leave us a five-star review . Same thing

18:20

on Spotify . Guys , we appreciate you

18:22

. I appreciate all

18:24

the love and support we get and thank

18:26

you for being a part of our journey to

18:29

help us create our own

18:31

reality . Every single one of

18:33

you are appreciated by me and

18:36

I'm grateful for all the support you

18:38

guys have given us over the years . Thank you

18:40

so much .