Nation's Restaurant News: Taking Aim At Crime

Littleton, Cob., restaurateur vows to preserve his business despite ties to Columbine tragedy

Chris Lau had only one thought a year ago when he heard about the mass murders at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo.: Make sure the door to his nearby restaurant was unlocked in case any students, especially employees, wanted to seek refuge there.

He sped to his newly purchased Blackjack Pizza franchise and began an anxious vigil that only would get worse as the days passed. No students arrived, but within hours Lau's eatery had become integral to the unfolding tragedy. Two of his employees, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, not only died in the massacre but also caused it.

For the next few weeks, the news accounts explaining how they accumulated weapons and planned their attack invariably would involve Lau's livelihood.

"Obviously, I was stunned," Lau recalls. "Every day I had to keep reading the paper. I was deeply concerned about what the next revelation was going to be, what former employee was going to be involved."

More than a year later, most of Lau's disbelief has dissipated, but his business still is suffering repercussions. Sales have rebounded to a break-even point yet remain below their figures before the shooting. Most of the crank phone calls -- smart alecks ordering pipe-bomb pizzas and the like -- have subsided, as have calls from the press. And employees have learned to ignore the dwindling number of errant remarks questioning the respectability of their employer.

Of course, what happened to Lau was unique. But more than a few foodservice operators have found themselves victimized by random acts of violence they can neither anticipate nor prevent even though statistics indicate that crime continues to decline nationwide.

Within the span of one week this April, the manager at a Chevys franchise in Sandy, Utah, and two employees at a Chinese restaurant in McKees Rocks, Pa., had been shot and killed in separate rampages by individuals who had no connection to either business. And just a month earlier in another Pittsburgh suburb, a man at a McDonald's was one of three fatalities in a senseless shooting spree that also injured two people at that restaurant and a neighboring Burger King.

While experts say no way really exists to protect a business from such random acts of violence, that operators can do plenty to aid their viability after the fact.

"Depending on how the public perceives [a violent incident] restaurants can survive and go forward," says Dick Moe, executive vice president of Interpro Group, a loss prevention and security consulting firm with offices in Tucson, Ariz.; Louisville, Ky.; and Atlanta. "People realize things like this happen. Restaurants are providing a service to the community, so the community doesn't benefit from closing it. Nobody really wins when a business doesn't reopen."

Most important, according to Moe, is for restaurateurs to have in place a crisis management program. As soon as a violent act occurs, professionals should be on-site to counsel employees and any of their family members who may be in need. Many savvy operators also offer to contribute to rewards for prosecuting the suspects and may help to meet funeral expenses for victims. Electing to aid a victim's family through donation of sales or profits from a designated period of time also can win a restaurant a more favorable judgment in the court of public opinion.

Lau, given the circumstances surrounding his ordeal, was determined to persevere from the beginning. He had purchased the franchise only six weeks before the havoc at Columbine High and steadily was building business when the shots rang out less than a mile away.

"My manager called and said there were guns and bombs going off at Columbine," Lau recalls. "I thought it was blown way out of proportion. I turned on the television to see what was going on, and the severity was evident pretty quick. I got in my car and headed for the store."

Harris and Klebold had been among the employees Lau had retained after his acquisition of the restaurant, on the recommendation of the previous owner. The two youths worked as cooks, willingly and ably making pizzas during the busy dinner hours.

"I had no reason to believe that those two had violent inclinations," Lau says. "They were both responsible, hard-working and what appeared to be normal teenagers. I never saw anything that would make me think they would do anything even close to what happened at Columbine."

But on April 20, 1999, Lau's perception had changed. Fifteen people lay dead, 23 were injured and the country was in shock. Law enforcement officers and reporters began flocking to Lau's restaurant to see what he could tell them. His property was swept for bombs twice, and news reports began surfacing about how other former Blackjack Pizza employees had helped the duo collect their weapons. It was also revealed that under the previous ownership Harris once brought a pipe bomb to work.

"I had no inclination, or else I wouldn't have purchased the restaurant," Lau says.

Sales fell 40 percent, and Lau's restaurant was branded as a place where killers worked. The store was closed for five days as employees dealt with the tragedy. And media and pranksters harassed Lau about his ties to the so-called Trenchcoat Mafia, the underground group to which Harris and Klebold reportedly belonged.

"It almost devastated the business," Lau remarks. "I ended up tapping out every resource I had to prop the business up, and to this day it's not recovered. Sales dropped precipitously immediately, and to this day my business doesn't respond to advertising."

Then, he adds, "but I don't want to sound self-pitying when people have lost lives. Remember, it's really just commerce."

Through it all Lau maintained his composure and his compassion. He crafted a press statement and gave employees as much time off as they needed. As it became evident that he knew little about Harris and Klebold, the investigation moved away from his business. He locked away the two boys' employment records to keep them out of the hands of the many people who called seeking to buy them. And all employees continue to follow Lau's instructions to direct to him anyone who mentions the carnage.

Despite his business ordeal, Blackjack Pizza remains Lau's principal focus. "I am determined to keep this thing going," he states.