(Newser) – When three robbers walked into the Waffle House in Newnan, Georgia, where she worked, Heather "Shorty" Burkinshaw-Stanley didn't hesitate. As the trio made their escape, the waitress followed them outside and fired a shot, the Daily News reports. For her efforts, Burkinshaw-Stanley was fired. But the mother of three says she's do it all again. "To myself I felt it was right," she tells WSB-TV. The drama unfolded in the wee hours Thursday after the three men finished a meal and handed a waitress a note threatening to shoot everyone if she didn't hand over "all the money," reports the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. No gun was shown. They got $200 and walked out. Meanwhile, Burkinshaw-Stanley strode to her car, grabbed a gun, and fired a shot in the air "in an attempt to scare the robbers," she explains.

"I didn’t know if they had guns … so my instinct was to go to my car and get the gun,” Burkinshaw-Stanley tells WSB. "I was in fear for my life, my co-workers’ lives, and I did what I thought was right," she tells the Newnan Times-Herald. Her employers apparently didn't think so and fired her the following day. "We want people to feel safe on both sides of the counter," says a Waffle House rep. “That bullet could have went anywhere, hit anyone," one neighbor tells WSB, "but I definitely think she had the right to defend herself." Cops are looking for the suspects and Burkinshaw-Stanley, who worked at the chain restaurant for nearly two years, is looking for a new job. She started a GoFundMe page to make ends meet, and about $7,000 has been donated. (This waitress was stiffed for not looking "normal.")

