By: Robin Ford Wallace

Staff Reporter

The McDonald’s assistant manager who police say robbed his own store last week was booked into jail in Dade on Friday following extradition from DeKalb County, Ala.,  Allon Wayne McKenzie was charged with burglary and theft by taking and released on bond later that afternoon.

Shawn Chapa of the Trenton Police Department says he received a call at 4:30 on the morning of July 20 from the local McDonald’s restaurant.

“The first-shift manager came in and noticed the safe wasn’t shut right and there were quarters on the floor,” said Chapa.

Chapa says McKenzie, 44, of Bryant, who wasn’t scheduled to be at work until noon that day, had used his store key and gone into the McDonald’s around 2:35 a.m. Going straight to the safe, he took about $2,248 in cash.

But McKenzie hadn’t figured on the store’s new video security system, said Chapa. “It caught him coming into the store and going to the safe and taking the money,” he said. “It catches all parts of the store and the parking lot.”

Arriving to investigate, Chapa and Dade County Detective Adam Reyes reviewed the security video with the McDonald’s district manager, who immediately recognized McKenzie as one of his employees, said Chapa.

Chapa and Reyes, aided by Alabama police, traced McKenzie to his father’s home in Henagar, Ala., arresting him there around 1:45 p.m.

“So it was fairly easy,” said Chapa. “He didn’t seem surprised. He knew it was coming.”

McKenzie was incarcerated in DeKalb, then brought back to Dade on Friday after signing an extradition waiver.

Chapa did not know how long McKenzie had worked at McDonald’s, but he said management there had been unaware of McKenzie’s record. “He’s got prior robberies,” said Chapa. “I don’t think they knew the full extent of his background.” He showed the Sentinel a mug shot of McKenzie from December 1996.

McKenzie is married and the father of an 8-month old baby, said Chapa.