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SARNIA -- Fired after a cash drawer was stolen while they were on their break, two Tim Hortons workers are petitioning to get their jobs back.
Grace Wright, 29, and Kitty Dunn, 31, were on break outside the Corunna coffee shop when a cash register drawer was taken from the drive-through window at about 1:30 a.m.
"While we were on break, they ripped the drawer right out of there, out of the drive-through window," Wright said. "And then we got fired."
Store tapes show a hooded person removed the drawer, containing about $160, before leaving. Neither woman says she saw a vehicle approach.
"People obviously watched us with enough gumption just to go after it while we were on break," Wright said.
She and Dunn disabled a sensor that opens the window before leaving the store, but the thief pried it open.
A lock that latches the window shut, she said, had been broken since before she started working there a year ago.
Upon returning to work -- after 13 minutes, according to store tapes -- the workers noticed the missing till, contacted management and then police.
An officer arrived and closed the drive-through for an hour to determine foot traffic, Lambton OPP Const. John Reurink said.
Dunn and Wright replaced the till with one scheduled for 4 a.m., worked the rest of their shift until 7:30 a.m., then left. They were called and fired by management at 3 p.m.
"Why are we being fired for being victims of a robbery?" Wright said.
Both are single mothers with young children and Wright said she moved to Corunna from London for the job.
David Morelli, a spokesperson at Tim Hortons' corporate office in Oakville, said the decision that resulted in Wright's and Dunn's firing will likely not be overturned.
"From what I understand, the employees left the store unattended, which is against policy for security and safety reasons," he said.
Part of the employee handbook reads: "When working shifts that fall between dusk and dawn you are not permitted to leave the store for any reason except to complete management-approved garbage drops," Morelli said.