Buford Woman Fired From Job For Being Beaten and Robbed

AMAZING UPDATES AT BOTTOM OF ARTICLE

Martha, still unable to return to work from nearly being beaten to death, has been fired from her job after many years of loyal service.  She now struggles to keep her utilities turned on, to keep food on her table and is doing all she can to avoid foreclosure.

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"Martha" has been able to hold onto her position longer than most, due to her diligence, her thoroughness and her gift for recognizing fraud, even when the talent of those attempting to perpetrate such has become so technologically advanced.

Turnover in the check cashing business is high because those attempting to perform their jobs are completely at the mercy of those who spend so much time trying to get over on check cashing businesses.  There is no school for training check cashing clerks and no instruction manuals that are continually updated to help them decrease the amount of checks that come back as either insufficient or as fraudulent. 

In fact, in recent years, just the opposite has occurred in the check cashing industry.  Banks have stopped verifying information over the phone for check cashers.  Not too long ago, check cashers could call banks and ask if accounts were valid or whether funds existed in accounts to cover the checks that were being presented to check cashers from individuals who presented proper identification.

Today, not only is there a lack of information or support available to check cashing stores and their clerks - but there exist no formal training programs or opportunities for advancement for check cashing clerks to improve themselves, excell in their positions and become more successful over time.  Despite that, individuals like Martha continue to work as hard as they can over long periods of time to better themselves on their own, and to create a reputation for being long standing - hard working productive employees.

That is, until the unthinkable happens.  One evening in February of this year,  there was an ominous knock upon the front door of Martha's quiet and peaceful home.  Martha was hesitant to answer at such a late hour because she was quite tired from working on her feet all day long and a knock at the door is normally unheard of at that late hour.

"Hello, who is it?" Martha inquired in a curious and cautious voice.  A woman's responded "I'm sorry to bother you at this late hour, but I seem to have accidentally backed into your car and I just wanted to exchange insurance information with you" replied the woman.

Martha was still weary about things, so she unlocked the deadbolt just over her door knob and ever so gently opened the door with the security chain still attached just above eye level.

Just then, the door exploded into Martha's face - smashing her glasses into her eyes.  And that was just the beginning.  A large towering male burst through her front door and unleashed a beating upon her she could have never imagined. 

Barely conscious, Martha was able to plead to the man and the woman that she would do anything if he would just please stop torturing her and let her live.  The female spoke for the two and explained that this was in fact a robbery of the check casher she worked for and if she did as she was told - it would all be over soon.

Martha immediately complied as best she could.

Martha was then abducted from her home, and forced to return back to her place of business.  She used her keys to open the door and opened the safe for the two to empty and make off with the cash.

Unbeknownst to Martha, these robberies most often end with no witnesses left alive to identify and testify against the perpetrators.  But Martha was learning fast and thinking even faster.

One of the reasons Martha has lasted so long in an industry that has such a high rate of turnover is her ability to learn fast - and on this particular evening, this was quite possibly going to be the key to whether she lives or dies.

Just as the team was finishing loading their loot and executing plans to discard the evidence - Martha began doing her best to convince her abductors that she never had the chance to see any of their faces as they destroyed her glasses when they drove them into her face and her eyes.  She even made it a point to show them the blood that continued to pour from the wounds around her eyes, thus making it impossible for her to barely see anything during the entire incident.

Martha was even able to convince them that killing her would be pointless and would escalate simple robbery charges to murder charges that carried the death penalty.

With that, they spared Martha's life and went on their way.  She may have survived the incident for the time being, but she lives in fear every day, that the team may reconsider and return to finish the job.  Martha was so badly beaten during the incident that she still has a great deal of trouble walking and using her hands - and that's not even the worst of it.

Today, Martha is terrified of just about everything.  She is afraid of being alone, of opening her drapes or even looking out of her windows.  She is deathly afraid of the night.  She is horrified at every knock on her door and she is extremely afraid to even leave her home.

What is Martha to do?

She's still not well enough to return to work and her physicians have not yet released her to do so.  But that is all mute as her employer has fired her.  He claims that she was terminated for cashing too many bad checks, but Martha has consistently cashed less bad checks than any other employee at her place of business - especially when the bad checks she's cashed are averaged over the number of years she's worked there.

Martha has been consistently one of the store's best employees for many years.  She feels their decision to fire her was obviously to avoid paying for workman's compensation and other liabilities related to the incident.  In fact, since the day following the robbery and in the weeks that followed, Martha's employers had been pressuring her to return to work as though the entire incident had never happened, but she's simply been physically unable to. 

Why exactly did the robbery happen the way it did? 

The answer to that question is simple and came from the robbers themselves.

During the robbery, the perpetrators told Martha that they had planned the job for over two months.  They boasted to Martha how obvious it appeared to them to pull off, because there was little to no security in her store compared to all the other check cashing stores.  They told her that her store plainly lacked all the typical security devices that cost only hundreds of dollars to purchase and install - and they usually deter acts like the one that was going on at present.

They told Martha that their plan was quite simple, the whole thing pretty much developed itself and was as easy as a walk in the park.  Fire arms weren't even necessary.   Why were these criminal so open with Martha, telling her all these things that she didn't need to know?  Martha thinks that they planned to eliminate her once their job was finished - so they wouldn't have to worry about he bearing witness against her.

When will Martha be able to return to work, and what can she do until then?

Martha is haunted by the ever-present fear that the robbers may reconsider their decision to let her live to one day testify against them.  This fear looms overhead, sometimes - every single minute.  Especially when she tries to close her eyes to sleep at night.  Plus, she fears that other companies in her line of work might be afraid to hire her. 

But those worries are well down the line.  Martha is having trouble figuring out how to keep her utilities on, put food on her table, avoid foreclosure while trying to recover from her physical injuries.  She absolutely has no idea what to do.

Martha has consulted attorneys since the incident for relief, but most firms seem to think that since the act originated in her home - she may not have a case.  Even if she did have a case, it would do nothing for her now - when she needs help the most.  Martha's friends drop by with food for her from time to time.  And some have even pooled their money together to help with her utility bills, but it's not sustainable.  She doesn't know what she's going to do, and has no place to turn.

If any of our readers has any helpful suggestions or words of encouragement for Martha, please email them to Martha@RealNetSolutions.ws .  If anyone would like to contribute food or possibly a small amount of money to help Martha make it through this tough time, please email us and let us know how we can help in getting it to her.  

This article was published on 9:00AM Sunday April 13th, and by 6:00PM that evening - Gwinnett Daily Online readers had alread contributed over $200 by sending money through PayPal.com in care of GDO's General Manager:

Paul.Martin@RealNetSolutions.ws

Any amount of money to help Martha is greatly appreciated and every penny is forwarded directly to her.

If anyone would like to phone in support for Martha, they can feel free to use PayPal or call our company's phone lines during normal business hours to pledge their support.  Individuals are also welcome to can call our company's President Debbie Creel-Martin on her cell phone at (770) 895-6491 and make arrangements to get help to Martha.  In these trying times, $5 or $10 can go a long way towards helping her.  Her needs are small and her gratitude is great.

Also, if any of our readers have had any experience in Post Traumatic Stress or have knowledge of any victim's support groups, we encourage you to forward information concerning that as well.

In any case, please keep checking back as we will update this article as this story progresses.

UPDATE - 
Friday April 18th, 10AM
We stopped by Martha's this week to see if things had gotten any better for her.  She invited us in for a cup of coffee.

A few minutes into our visit, Martha's daughter presented herself.  "You never mentioned you have a daughter" we said "This is my daughter, Sue."  She suffered some medical problems earlier in her life, and she needs constant care around the clock.

Sue is tall and slender.  She has beautiful,long - flowing red hair with blond highlights, glowing eyes of emerald green and she NEVER stops smiling.  Martha explains how her medical problems effected the area of her brain that controls emotion. 

Sue's unable to speak.

We didn't want to take up too much of their time, but we did ask how things were going, and if anything had improved for them.

Just the opposite, we're afraid to report.  Martha has been suffering severe migraines since her attack and she can no longer afford to pay for the home where Sue has always stayed while Martha worked all week long.  So now she stays home with her mom, with no viable means of support in sight.

But Martha told us something amazing as we were leaving.  "Something will work out for us, because it always has.  You just have to believe in people, and in hope.  People are good and God finds infinite ways to take care of us all.  Something will work out for us, you just wait and see!"  she tells us as we left.

AMAZING UPDATE! -
Saturday April 19th, 11AM
Amazingly enough, a wonderful individual who read this article donated a very large, undisclosed amount through the PayPal account listed above to Martha to help her through these tough times." 

Martha was right.  Sometimes, some of us spend so much time talking and expressing ourselves - that we forget to listen. 

Thank you Martha, from all of us. 

UPDATE - 
Saturday April 19th, 2PM
Some folks with our company had scheduled a picnic for Saturday afternoon and invited Martha and her daughter to join.  At 1:00PM - we phoned her to see if they still planned to make it.

It turned out that Martha had suffered another Migraine and was unable to join us - so we shared her good news over the phone with her.

Martha cried.  She was so grateful.  She told us that she and her daughter had just run out of food the day before and she just knew that something good was to happen soon, and boy, was she right!

Martha thanks our readers for all their support and especially the person who was so generous that came to her rescue.