A Subway employee in Illinois says she’s been suspended from her job at the restaurant after a video of her fighting back against an armed robber went viral.
Araceli Sotelo said she feared for her life, so she fought back against the robber when he grabbed her purse.
She was working alone on September 5th when the robber came into the store and went after Sotelo.
Eventually, the robber is seen with Sotelo’s purse before she manages to knock his gun out of his hand.
She grabs the gun and hits the robber.
“He kind of just showed me his gun, and I was like freaking out like, ‘woah, you can’t do that, please leave’. [He said] ‘give me all the money’ and I said, ‘I do not have any money, like, I do not have any money.’ That is all I had and he was just like, ‘give me everything before I hurt you.'…
He was smaller than me, so I have that advantage. I’m bigger than him, so I could at least put my weight on him, push him, or something.”
Sotelo shared a copy of the video to her TikTok account and it went viral with more than 8 million views.
Sotelo says she’s been suspend from work.
An online fundraising site had raised more than $10,000 for her.