Watch: Subway worker fends off armed robbery in store, gets suspended as CCTV footage gets leaked

Araceli Sotelo, an employee at a Subway sandwich shop in Rockford, Illinois, United States, fended off an armed robbery while managing the store alone. Days later, she has been suspended by the store after the CCTV footage of the robbery attempt was leaked. The video, captured on 5 September, shows Sotelo fighting off an armed robber, hitting him repeatedly with his own gun. When the robber pointed his gun at her, Sotelo pleaded with him not to harm her. After a minute of pleading and begging, she stuck back, pushing and hitting him repeatedly. As she pushed the robber away and tried to grip him into a headlock, Sotelo’s purse dropped. The robber’s gun fell to the ground as well. Sotelo snatched the gun and struck the thief repeatedly with it. The robber later ran off with her purse. She later posted the leaked footage of the CCTV on her TikTok account, which garnered over nine million views.

The footage of her heroic attempt was also posted on Facebook, receiving over 1,20,000 views to date. Several users praised her bravery in facing down an armed robber while alone in the store. But Sotelo posted an update after sharing the footage, saying she had been suspended from her job. She claimed she was suspended after the footage of the robbery attempt was leaked online as her bosses did not want it to be known that she was attacked in the store. Subway commented that it was “deeply concerned” about the incident that took place, but refused to confirm or deny whether Sotelo was suspended. The fast food giant said that every branch was owned and operated independently and asked for patience till the investigation was over. Meanwhile, a GoFundMe page has been started for Sotelo to help her hire a lawyer and recover her wages as well as replace her stolen items. The page has already managed to raise over $16,306. Police are still investigating the incident and have logged the video of the incident as evidence.