Gone granny gone

A woman who devoted 30 years to Taco Bell--and took a bullet for it--has lost it all.

Border Foods Inc, the company that owns Minnesota’s Taco Bell restaurants, fired Winnie Shilson, 64, yesterday after three decades at the fast-food store. She was dismissed without any type of benefits or severance--"Not even a taco," her husband said.

Shilson started working at TB in 1977 at $2.85 an hour. She worked 60 hours aweek, and became general manager at the Richfield Taco Bell. But what's most impressive is that Shilson was robbed at gunpoint twice and shot by an impatient robber who fired at the safe and the bullet ricocheted and hit her in knee. Con fuego, baby.

Shilson was making $45,000 a year and believes her firing was unfairly based on cost-cutting measures. Representation from Taco Bell said that Shilson failed her last two performance reviews and their number one concern is their customers.

Maybe the 64-year-old Shilson wasn't grilling the quesadillas as quickly as she was before, but I'm sure there are less competent people working at Taco Bell's across the nation who need the job less than Shilson does.