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Juan Canales, a waiter at 84 Thai Food in Fort Lauderdale, responded to a woman's call for help, fought a knife-wielding carjacker, and with the help of three other men, restrained him until the police arrived. Here's the story, from the Sun-Sentinel:

At about 11:30 a.m. Monday, Massiel Marquardt, 22, walked out of a Subway restaurant at the Southland Shopping Center in the 900 block of State Road 84. A man approached her from behind and pointed a 4-inch pocketknife at her left side, she said.
"He said, 'Give me your car keys or you're gonna die,'" said Marquardt, who moved to South Florida from Georgia two weeks ago. "Honestly, I don't know where he came from."
Marquardt said she handed over the keys to her 2007 Honda and ran back toward the shops, screaming, "Help me!"
Canales, 42, who was opening up 84 Thai Food for the lunch crowd, sprang into action. He said he caught up to the suspect, Albert Means, 46, and told him, "You're not leaving with this truck."
Canales said the suspect pulled out the knife to stab him but Canales grabbed a two-by-four piece of woodfrom a nearby truck. Canales said he swung at Means and threatened to hit him with the wood if he tried to get into Marquardt's Honda.
The man lowered his knife, and Canales brought him to the ground. Three other men in the crowd that had formed rushed forward to hold Means down until police arrived.

Great story, right? Clearly the guy did something good and should be awarded, or at the very least thanked, for his role in the effort. But his only award was a pink slip right after the lunch service. Yep, it's true. The restaurant's owner wasn't too happy with the hour Canales spent outside being questioned by the police or with the extra attention the incident caused.

But there is a silver lining. Today, the Sun-Sentinel reports that job offers have been pouring in after business owners read about the hero's firing. Canales, a former electrician, has gotten at least two offers from electrical repair businesses and one from a roofing business willing to work with him despite his lack of experience in the field. One door closes, another one opens, right?

Now, the question is what will happen to 84 Thai? There's been no comment from the owner, Sathaporn Yosagrai. Is this story going to turn people away? If Yosagrai thought the attention from a scuffle outside of his restaurant was bad, he's going to really hate the attention he'll get now that he's known as the guy who fired the hero.

UPDATE: As we were writing this post, Alex at Stuck on the Palmetto was covering the same topic. Check the post and the comments; the calls to boycott 84 Thai have already begun. It's beginning to look bleak for the restaurant.

Fort Lauderdale waiter foils carjacking...then gets fired [Sun-Sentinel]
Business owners offer to hire waiter fired after he thwarted carjacking [Sun-Sentinel]
84 Thai Food [MenuPages]