ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. – The young woman who was almost taken during an attempted kidnapping outside a St. Augustine business said the fear of possibly losing her job was the primary reason for her decision to spring into action and try to stop the robbery attempt.
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Emma Marine, 18, was asked Thursday in an on-camera interview with the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office why she decided to try to stop 31-year-old Michael Tundidor from leaving the smoke shop where she worked with various stolen items instead of letting him walk out undeterred.
“Honestly, to keep my job,” she said after taking a long pause and a deep breath. “I was worried the boss was going to fire me if I didn’t.”
Marine said when Tundidor tried to leave out the front door with the stolen merchandise, she blocked his way and he said, “What are you going to do about it?”
Marine cited an experience that took place “less than a week” prior to the attempted kidnapping involving her sister, who also worked at the St. Augustine store.
“A customer had stolen something on my sister’s shift, and [the boss] threatened to fire her if it happened again, or he was going to take it out of her pay again,” she said.
Marine was then asked if she thought her pay would be docked had she let Tundidor leave the store with the stolen items, to which she flatly responded, “Yeah.”
She added that she and her sister no longer work at the smoke shop after her boss “let them go,” adding that there has been no contact between them since everything happened.
News4JAX spoke to a manager at the store on Thursday, and he said Marine was not fired, but declined to answer any more questions and referred us to the owner.
Marine said physically, the incident left her with minor injuries on her wrist; however, mentally, moving forward from the incident will require therapy and keeping her mind busy now that she no longer works at the smoke shop.
