Las Vegas bartender says he was forced to repay employer after robbery

A Las Vegas bartender’s relationship of being forced to reimburse his leader for thousands of dollars stolen during a 2020 robbery astatine the tavern wherever helium worked has sparked outrage connected societal media.

Edward Parker, 42, said helium was moving astatine the Lodge astatine Hualapai, 3460 S. Hualapai Way, astatine 6:30 a.m. connected Dec. 4 erstwhile a alien entered.

“A man entered the bar, pointed a weapon astatine me, robbed my bar,” Parker would aboriginal archer the Clark County expansive assemblage that indicted a Las Vegas mates successful the heist. The transgression was caught connected surveillance video.

Parker took to the Vegas Bartenders & Servers Facebook page, saying helium was leaving Las Vegas and that helium wanted to pass different bartenders and servers of what happened to him aft the robbery. He wrote successful the station that ownership and absorption astatine the barroom demanded that helium reimburse them for the fiscal loss.

“I was past fixed the prime to wage backmost the wealth that was stolen to support my occupation oregon get fired (TRUE STORY),” Parker wrote.

Parker posted a representation of a Lodge repayment signifier that gave him 1 of 2 options: a accidental to repay the $3,937.35 successful 1 lump sum oregon done $300 installments.

“I’m ashamed to accidental that I was terrified of losing a large paying occupation during a chaotic clip successful America and chose to wage the wealth backmost and enactment employed,” Parker wrote successful the post. “I volition regret that prime for years to come.”

Parker, reached this week by phone, declined a petition for an interview. He said lone that everything helium wrote successful the station was “100 percent accurate.”

A telephone telephone Wednesday greeting to the Lodge astatine Hualapai was referred to the Lodge’s firm office. Two messages specifically seeking remark f0r this communicative were near astatine that bureau Wednesday and Thursday. The messages were not returned.

But Parker’s narrative, which was shared Monday by the fashionable Vital Vegas Twitter account, prompted radical connected societal media to question whether the repayment statement was ineligible oregon proper.

Two Las Vegas attorneys reviewed Parker’s Facebook station connected Thursday for the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Both said that specified a repayment statement was not enforceable.

“To me, the menace of losing one’s occupation if they don’t wage this wealth that was taken from a robbery is simply a usurpation of nationalist argumentation and could precise good effect successful a wrongful termination assertion against the Bar,” lawyer Robert Murdock wrote successful an email to the newspaper.

Attorney Joseph Mott said the account, if true, represented “a wide illustration of an leader improperly taking vantage of its employee.”

“Aside from the absurdity of forcing an worker who was a unfortunate of equipped robbery to repay stolen wealth oregon beryllium fired, the employer’s behaviour apt besides violated Nevada regulations designed to support employees,” Mott wrote. “Within the applicable regulation, an leader whitethorn lone deduct from an employee’s wages amounts that the leader reasonably believes the worker was liable for. In this case, the worker doesn’t look to beryllium liable for the loss, truthful forcing the worker to repay the nonaccomplishment from his wages is simply a usurpation of the Code.”

Las Vegas constabulary yet arrested a Las Vegas couple, Jack McLaughlin, 42, and Daniela Tito, 38, successful a drawstring of barroom robberies successful the valley, including the 1 astatine the Lodge. They were indicted connected charges of robbery with a deadly weapon, conspiracy to perpetrate robbery, burglary with a firearm and different charges.

Contact Glenn Puit astatine gpuit@reviewjournal.com oregon 702-383-0390. Follow @GlennatRJ connected Twitter.