When the three Subway restaurant locations in Clinton closed back in June of this year, officials at the company’s headquarters said the doors to each one would be re-opening soon. Now, two months later, customers are still wondering what happened.

According to Tim Mann, chief operations officer of the N.C. Subway Group, the company is still “committed” to the three sites, located at 312 Northeast Blvd.; 1119 Sunset Ave.; and 1415 Sunset Ave. (inside of Wal-Mart), and expects they will all open under new management some time soon.

What went wrong?

The three sites, operated by Vitus Bradshaw, were closed abruptly on the morning of Wednesday, June 17, leaving roughly 37 employees without a job.

According to the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina, Bradshaw, who also owned Subway franchises in Kenly and Wilson, filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy on May 28, 2009.

Within weeks, all five locations were closed.

Bradshaw also reportedly owns the Subway, located on N.C. 24 between Turkey and Warsaw, which is also closed.

The official word from the N.C. Subway Group was that the franchises under Bradshaw are tied up with legal and financial issues, and are on the market for prospective buyers.

Forgotten in the legal issues were Bradshaw’s former employees, who claim that they were shocked at the abrupt closing because they were never told that the stores were shutting their doors.

Eighteen-year-old Shandi Grady worked at the Subway store located inside of Wal-Mart and said that the day before the closings, workers were given specific instructions.

“We were told not to make any bread, take out no meats (for the next morning),” Grady said. “Just leave everything as it was. The next morning, they were all closed and we were without a job — just like that.”

Grady, who is a full-time student at the Sampson Early College, said that to this day she and her co-workers were never given an explanation as to why.

“I never even met Mr. Bradshaw,” she said of her three-month employment at the store, “but I feel like something really should have been said to us. One day we have a job and the next day we are unemployed. He could have said something to us to give us a chance to get another means of employment.”

Making matters worse is that for Grady, who did not work long enough to draw unemployment benefits, she depended on the income for transportation.

“I go to school from 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.,” she explained. “I was working to pay my car insurance so I could get back and forth from school, and that is gone. It was canceled because I didn’t have the money to pay for it. Now I am stuck trying to get rides from friends back and forth to where I need to go.”

Grady said she felt, however, that there were some warning signs about the impending closing. “I started out working after school from 4-10:30 p.m.,” she said. “By the end, in the last weeks, my hours were being cut. I started out making over $200 and by the end, it was under $100.”

On top of everything else, the hours that she did work in those final days meant nothing.

“The last check I got from them was $84,” she said. “I cashed the $84 check and I got a note from the bank saying I owe over $100 because it bounced. The final check I am still owed never even came.”

Grady said that some of her co-workers experienced the same thing. However, since the N.C. Department of Labor will not process a complaint when the employer is involved in a bankruptcy, they, like her, felt they had no voice.

“It is frustrating,” she said, “because we depended on the money.”

Despite all of this, Grady said that she would still go back to work at the store.

“As long as he (Bradshaw) is not in charge of it,” she said. “It would have to be under new management and if it was possible, yes, I would go back.”

The 18-year-old said that she learned a valuable lesson through all of it.

“It taught me that you don’t always need to trust people you are working under. You need to check everything out to make sure it is legit,” she said.

When asked if she had any words for her former employer, Grady said, “I just wish he would have said something to us if he knew what was going to happen. And if he ever gets another business, he needs to be more responsible in the future, especially to his employees. They are the ones in there doing all the work, he isn’t.”

Another Subway Restaurant, located at 2701 West Highway 24 in Warsaw, has also been closed for the same period of time. Officials with the town could not confirm if the store was operated by Bradshaw, however, sources name Bradshaw as the owner of the Warsaw store.

Calls to Bradshaw’s Wilson address were not immediately returned before press time.

To reach Doug Clark call 910-592-8137 ext. 123 or send e-mail to sisports@myclintonnc.com.