ORLANDO, Fla. – Orange County Sheriff's deputies are searching for a woman who bit and punched an Orlando area convenience store worker and then ran away.
Tammy Flaherty said it happened while she was working at the Circle K at the corner of Silver Star Road and Hiawassee Road on Tuesday afternoon.
She said she was working with a customer who had debit card issues, and when she went to clean up a spill afterward, the customer returned.
"She grabbed my hair, she bit my arm, she punched me in the face, she cut me here, and here, and she took off," Flaherty said.
Flaherty said she called 911, and according to a report filed by deputies, they could not find the customer behind the attack.
They said they retrieved a copy of the store's surveillance video to help identify her.
On Friday, covered in bruises and still in pain, Flaherty said she received a call from Circle K corporate offices notifying her that she was being terminated for not following company rules.
The manager of the Silver Star Road convenience store did not want to comment on the termination.
News 6 sent emails and called Circle K's Tampa regional headquarters to get an explanation for
Flaherty's firing and received no response.
She said she didn't put up a fight with the customer, and she wants to work.
"I want that job," she said. "I'm working there because I need it, not because I want to get beat up."
Flaherty and her husband say they want the company to at least pay their medical bills, and they're looking for an attorney to help get that done.
Meantime, OCSO is searching for the woman who attacked her.
If you have any information, call Crimeline at 1-800-423-8477 (TIPS).