Burger King employee attacked, stabbed in Shelton
SHELTON, Wash. - A woman is in critical condition after she was attacked and stabbed multiple times early Friday outside a Burger King restaurant in Shelton, police said.
Officers and medics responded to the scene, the Burger King on Wallace Kneeland Boulevard, at about 2:30 a.m. after receiving a report of a robbery, said Mike Fiola of the Shelton police.
The victim, who is an employee at the restaurant, was found with multiple stab wounds. She was taken first to Mason General Hospital and then to St. Peters Hospital in Olympia with life-threatening injuries.
Police learned that the victim's car had been stolen by her attacker, Fiola said. The vehicle and the suspect were located soon afterward in the Mountain View area.
There was a short pursuit that ended when the suspect crashed the vehicle into a utility pole in the downtown area.
Officers then took the suspect into custody and placed him under arrest. He was identified as an 18-year-old Shelton resident, but his name was not immediately released.
The suspect was then booked into Mason County Jail for investigation of attempted murder and robbery, Fiola said.
Anyone with information about the crime or who witnessed anything suspicious at the Shelton Burger King around the time of the incident is asked to contact the Shelton Police Department at 360-426-4441.
Officers and medics responded to the scene, the Burger King on Wallace Kneeland Boulevard, at about 2:30 a.m. after receiving a report of a robbery, said Mike Fiola of the Shelton police.
The victim, who is an employee at the restaurant, was found with multiple stab wounds. She was taken first to Mason General Hospital and then to St. Peters Hospital in Olympia with life-threatening injuries.
Police learned that the victim's car had been stolen by her attacker, Fiola said. The vehicle and the suspect were located soon afterward in the Mountain View area.
There was a short pursuit that ended when the suspect crashed the vehicle into a utility pole in the downtown area.
Officers then took the suspect into custody and placed him under arrest. He was identified as an 18-year-old Shelton resident, but his name was not immediately released.
The suspect was then booked into Mason County Jail for investigation of attempted murder and robbery, Fiola said.
Anyone with information about the crime or who witnessed anything suspicious at the Shelton Burger King around the time of the incident is asked to contact the Shelton Police Department at 360-426-4441.
The lady in question is my dear friend of many years. She was the closing manager that night, had locked the store and was at her car when attacked. I saw her last night when I returned from an out of town trip, and she is making amazing progress and will soon be moved out of ICU. Wishes for her well being are very much appreciated, and I will carry these words to her.
Here is some insight on a possible motive.
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Having been a shift manager at BK during high school let me tell you what was at least then policy.
BK only keeps a certain amount of cash on hand, so instead of using an armored car service each night the closing manager takes whatever profit over the minimum cash on hand amount and does a drop at the local bank.
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its generally only 500-1200 dollars a day, hence making it not worth the cost of an armored car service and not a very ideal target for most rational thieves.
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I have no way of knowing if this was the case in fact, but it was the first thing that popped to mind due to the circumstances.
 @Mesh When I worked for BK that was also policy, however our nightly haul was considerably more since I worked at a store that was just off Interstate 5 in Lacey. Minutes after I left at the end of my shift one night about six or seven years ago, the BK I worked at was robbed at point-blank range and immediately afterwards policy was changed to where deposits had to be done during the day immediately before the lunch rush by the store manager instead of the closing manager.I frequent the Shelton BK at night and I believe I may know the lady who was stabbed. God bless her and may she have a speedy and full recovery!Â
 @StevenRosenow Yeah, I do believe the overall policy is determined by the franchisee. My experience was in the mid 90's, one would think that these days since it seems that almost no one carries cash and debit cards are used for the majority of transactions that there wouldn't be much cash on hand.
Another young adult apparently thinking the world is just like a video game - e.g. Grand Theft Auto, etc.
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He's 18 though. Big house for him.
My Goodness. To think my sons and I were there eating yesterday. I hope she recovers quickly. Good work by the Shelton PD. This is something up and coming in our big town of Shelton. We have the WCC State Prison here,  so many families of long term inmates move into the area. Our Walmart was on of 5 in the nation to be reviewed a couple years back for high theft and shoplifts. After its review most high value items were moved out to other stores, stock limited, everything wrapped in cabled electronic security devices, plastic lock boxes, locking plugs on racks so you cant even turn a package around to read the back. Shelton is really up and coming of late.Â
I have no doubt whatsoever that there are wonderful, law-abiding people in Shelton (I know several; in fact I own property in Mason County though I don't live there) but for as long as I have lived in the Olympia area -- 40 + years now -- Shelton & Mason County in general have been stereotyped as "hick" & occupied by thieves & losers. This incident is one more example of why.
Where's the person saying they know him,saying he is a good kid was turning his life around,would have never seen this coming from him.I just hope he gets to be friends with one of long time prisoners and becomes there bi&$@.
We should ban all knives. Quick somebody tell Ken Schram! Maybe we can get the politicians on board.
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Seriously: I hope the victim makes a full recovery and the dirtbag goes away for a long time...or gets his neck stretched....
 @Gino knives to stab people all by themselves.. you ever see the posters that say "guns don't kill people.. people kill people!" same is true for knives.
 @Gino They need to ban the Chinese import knives... They are CHEAP!!! and found in every corner market these days. EVERY kid in shelton runs around with knives, its stupid here.
Last I heard about 8:30am they think she is going to make it. I haven't heard since. The employer I know will step up and is.Â
at least he didn't use a GUN in that crime.. perhaps there should be 5 day waiting periods on knives also.Â
I know some of these restaurants' drive-thrus stay open very late but even 2:30 seems way too late. These guys are literally asking for something of the sort to happen. I'm surprised it doesn't happen more often. Hope the victim recovers.
I'm a little unclear as to why she was attacked outside. More and more places are keeping drive-thrus open 24 hours but no one aside from employees is allowed inside the restaurant. Generally they don't allow walk-up customers either so I'm unsure how he was able to rob the place with only a knife. Its possible there may have been some sort of shift change or some task that required her to be outside the restaurant but it seems there may be more to this story. Either way I hope the victim recovers quickly. I just wouldn't necessarily blame it on a late night drive thru.Â
 @Simoleon82 On several recent visits to the Shelton Burger King, I have noticed that orders that go beyond about two or three minutes' time are normally parked at the front of the store so that the restaurant can maintain corporate "speed of service" standards (which, were when I worked for BK years ago - cars were not supposed to sit at the window longer than two minutes and not more than three and a half minutes total in the drive thru lane - that's going from the order box/menu to the window and out).Of course, this is speculating a little without knowing the truth, but to answer the probability question it could've been a case of parking a car at the front of the store, insomuch as not to cause the speed of service standards (yes, you ARE timed as far as how long you sit at the order pickup window, how long you sit at the order/menu box, etc) to be skewered.Â
Thats definitly a possiblity and if thats the case I hope Burger King rethinks this policy during the nightime hours at the least.Â
On a side note, I HATE having to pull ahead and park, I went to the drive thru for a reason (and I'm also one of those people who take others into condiseration so if I have a larger order I will park and go inside) I have never once had a good experience after having to pull ahead to park and wait. Its takes forever or I get forgotten.
Maybe the place was actually closed & she was cleaning up before going home, maybe taking the trash out to the dumpster or something. The officers responded to it as a robbery, but that could just be how the 911 caller reported it. Plus the lowlife did steal her car so technically I guess that's a robbery ...
 Having been in the food industry for most of my adult life I know there are certain safety policies that are upheld-even in the dingiest neighborhood pub... No one-especially a woman-is to walk to her car alone at night. Period. Now don't go getting all feminized on me, because it is not me, it is the way of our f&#$@d up world nowadays. A perpetrator sees a woman as a more likely target than a man, and a perpetrator will act upon the easiest target he deems. With that being said, the Shelton Burger King has alot of problems, the biggest is it's closing policy-even Starbucks will not even open a store if both openers are not there-you are told to wait in your car. The employee was doing her job-without the backing of policies in place to keep people safe. It is sick to see that a huge conglomerate like BK can allow a female to be alone that late in the night, just so they can adher to their "bottom line". BTW I quit managing that BK because of their backward policies that Corporation refused to address.
 @Simoleon82 I don't think you came across that way, I understand what you're saying. To be quite honest, we should be able to do anything at anytime of day or night without having to worry about this sort of thing, but that's the way it is I guess. We really can't help it. Just gotta be sure we look out for ourselves and each other whenever we can.
@katiemcc Oh I agree that it was a robbery I just woudn't put the entire blame on the drive thru being open late. Though, if as you say the restuarant may have been closed then I have to wonder why it was only one person closing, walking to their car or taking out the trash alone. Big companies like this usually (and I stress usually) have pretty extreme security measures. No one deserves to be robbed and stabbed either so I don't mean to come across as blaming the victim.
Mayhem, is in my neck of the woods now as well.. Â I hope she is OK and the POS is eliminated.
Oh I forgot, we will have to rehabilitate this POS. Why we tolerate this?
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Three things I bet are wrong with this punk 1 he is using drugs 2 he had no father in the home. 3 this punk was given everything except discipline from the time he was born.
Wow, he's off to a great start in his adult life. I wonder what kind of juvenile record he has, or if this is the first time he was caught. What a waste. He got what, a car (which he promptly crashed) and maybe a couple hundred bucks? I hope it was worth the years in jail he is facing. As for the victim, may she pull through and make a complete recovery. I can't imagine how traumatic this was. Hopefully her employer steps up to help her out during this time, if she survives.
Shouldn't this be covered under L&I? It's a workplace injury after all.
 @katiemcc:Â
Unfortunately, it may not be covered. L&I only applies if she was actually on the clock, doing her job & assigned duties. If she was, as an example, done for the night and simply walking out to her car to go home, it would not be covered by L&I.
Stabbed multiple times?
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What a sick bastard, hope you get a long, long sentence.Â
Makes you wonder if he knew her.
What a violent little turd. Stab and almost kill someone over a little bit of money. Hope he enjoys his young life in jail.