When Minimum Wage Clearly Isn't Enough

By Erin in Food on Nov 8, 2005 9:23PM

Chicagoist can never help but recall the Brown's Chicken Murders of '93 every single time we hear about a brutal robbery in the suburbs. So when some employees at the Lou Malnati's in Buffalo Grove were beaten late Sunday night, we were once again reminded why working in the service industry can be a rough gig.

We're not going to jump on a hysteria bandwagon here, but the good folks who spend the off-hours cleaning up and closing shop at restaurants are often targets for those looking for an easy mark. According to the FBI, 14.7%of all robberies happen in a commercial house, which includes restaurants. Most restaurants take every precaution they can possibly think of to protect employees, but stilll: late-night at a restaurant is a dangerous place. Plus, according to the article, the employees left a door unlocked while they tallied up the day's totals.

The jackholes who beat and robbed this Lou Malnati's made off with about $10,000 worth of cash, gift cards and checks. One of the employees has been released from the hospital and the Trib says that the condition of the other employee treated was not known as of Monday.