Student employees held at gun point

Tuesday, Oct. 20 junior Erin Kruger and sophomore Kaylee Navarrette were getting ready to close Smoothie King for the night. Neither of them knew that those ten minutes would change their lives forever.

“Kaylee was cleaning in the back and I was washing dishes in the front,” Kruger said. “I had recognized [the man] from earlier because a lot of people come in twice so I didn’t see it as a big deal”

At 8:50 p.m., a man walked into Smoothie King in a hat, sunglasses and a hoodie for the second time that day.

“He ordered a smoothie and I took his money and I put it in the register,” Kruger said. “Kaylee was about to grab a blender and start making the smoothie when he pulled out his gun.”

According to employees, the man jumped behind the counter and yelled at Kruger to open the register and empty the money.

“We were dead silent and I opened it up for him,” Kruger said. “He didn’t want to leave fingerprints anywhere so he held open a plastic grocery sack and had Kaylee and I empty the dollar bills into the register.”

Instead of taking the coins, the man pointed the gun at the girls and had them get on the ground as he left the store with the money.

After about a minute of crouching, the girls decided it was okay for them to get up and start taking action.

“There happened to be one of the Smoothie King landline phones on the counter nearby so Kaylee called the police while I called my boss to tell him what happened,” Kruger said.

After about two minutes the police, detective, boss and manager showed up to the store and began interviewing the girls and asking them questions.

“In my head I only thought maybe once that he was going to shoot but most of the time I was just thinking ‘hey he is just trying to threaten us because he is really desperate for money’,” Kruger said.

Since the event, Kruger has felt more equipped to deal with high stress situations.

“When I think that an AP Physics test was really stressful I always compare it to the Smoothie King situation and think that the test was only a two compared to the ten,” Kruger said.

As of yesterday, both girls have quit their jobs at Smoothie King and hope an experience like this doesn’t happen again.

“Kaylee and I hugged and we were glad that we lived,” Kruger said.  “It was quite the bonding experience.”