NEW ORLEANS — A job interview was in progress when a thief grabbed cash from the till at a fast-food restaurant.

The manager conducting the interview then blocked the door, and the applicant grabbed the thief's arms.

Eighteen-year-old Devin Washington got the would-be robber — and the job — at a Popeyes fried chicken restaurant in eastern New Orleans.

The robber asked the cashier to change a dollar Saturday afternoon, manager Danyanna Metoyer said, “and just reached over the counter and stuck his hand in the change drawer.”

Assistant manager Dominique Griffin grabbed the man's arm, but he broke away from her and headed for the door, police said in a news release.

But Metoyer was there to block him. “My upper-body strength was stronger than his,” she said Sunday morning.

“We hadn't made hardly any money, Metoyer said. “He wasn't going to take the $300 to $400 we probably had made. We needed our money,” she added.

“I got up and bent his arm back,” Washington said. He said he didn't know whether the man had a gun but wasn't scared.

Washington and cook Michael Ford held the thief until police arrived, Metoyer said.

Pablo Ciscart, 50, was arrested on a simple robbery charge, police said. It wasn't clear whether he has an attorney who could speak for him.

Metoyer said she and Griffin already had decided to hire Washington, but they hadn't had a chance to tell him when the theft occurred. She said they told him afterward, “You're hired. You earned it.”

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