Paula Deen speaks out about ‘horrifying’ gunpoint robbery after 1987 attacker is found dead in NYC
Paula Deen said she collapsed the day she was held at gunpoint by a masked robber while working at a bank in 1987, before her career as a celebrity chef.
Deen told Fox News Digital that she was the head teller at Albany First Federal in Georgia and was planning to quit because her husband got an opportunity in Savannah, but her boss asked if she could fill in for one day at another branch where there was just one woman who was fairly new.
She said, after walking into the bank and looking at her coworker, "I said, 'Oh, heavens to Betsy. This is a perfect setup for a robbery.' And she said, 'Oh, girl, don't say that.'"
But at 4 p.m., "a man burst through the front door fully masked and waving a gun. And he didn't even glance her way," Deen said of the other woman. "But came straight to me and put that gun against my head. And I said, 'Oh, my Lord, he's going to shoot me out of just reflex,' just because he was trembling so bad."
She said they gave the robber all the bank's money, "and he ran out."
Deen said she collapsed as soon as he left, adding that she expected to die that day.
"My daddy died at 40, and I went from this perfect life to the rug being pulled out from under my feet, and I was a mess," she admitted. "So, I said, 'Well I'll probably be dead at 42,' also because my mother died at 44, so I wouldn't have been surprised at all because I was expecting to be dead by the time I was 40. And now I'm 79."
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She called the robbery a "horrifying experience."
"And some people say, 'Well, I'd have done so and so, and I'd had done this.' You damn well don't know what you would do until it happens to you. And my goal was to give him all of our money and get out and leave us alive. That was all I cared about. And then as he went out, I collapsed."
She added, "As soon as he left, as soon as you got out the door and I could lock it, I collapsed."
After she moved to Savannah, she said she got a call from the president of the bank.
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"And he said, 'Paula, do you want to know why he was shaking so badly?' I said, 'Yes, I would.' He said, 'He was a customer of yours at the main office.' And I had gone out on a limb, and I made him a $500 loan for overdraft protection. And in looking back, I truly feel like if he had known I was in there, he wouldn't have done it. I just totally believe that now in hindsight."
Despite the horrible experience, Deen said she has gained a "soft spot" for the robber, who was found dead in his New York City apartment last week, over the years.
When the press interviewed him while he was in custody after the robbery, Deen said he told them, "'Listen, leave that poor woman alone. She didn't do anything wrong. And I am so sorry for the pain that I caused her.' So that put a soft spot in my heart for this man."
Deen also explained that she had suffered from agoraphobia from the time she was young, which made her "fearful of everything."
"Fear ruled my life, and that's such a bad place to be," she continued. "But yeah, fear was always there, and after you face so many things, you know, it kind of makes you stronger. You get through it, say, 'Well, I survived.'"
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Since then, she said she's tried to help other people overcome their agoraphobia.
When the story of the robbery resurfaced in a 2013 deposition related to a work discrimination lawsuit where she admitted to using a racial slur, Deen said she wishes she had handled the situation differently.
She said she had the "poorest" attorney "money could buy," and he never said a word during her testimony, even to object.
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She said her attorney had just told her to tell the truth, "and I did."
"You know, when I was held up, that was a robbery, right? In 2013, that was a robbery."
Deen claimed she was "the first one to ever be canceled."
Since the controversy, she said she's more careful about who she lets into her life "because some people don't have one bit of conscience to just make up a big ol' lie."
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But she said she also received an outpouring of support at the time from people on social media.
"There was so many people that cared about me, that truly cared, that I had never met," she said. "And I would get up every morning ... and I would just read what people had written to me. And some of them would actually give me their phone number and I would call them, you know, to thank them for their love and support. It was, you know, my reputation didn't have a blemish on it. And for that to be taken away from you, your name, everything you stood for, for that it be taken because of greed, it was tragic."
She said the central theme of the messages she received was:, 'Paula, we know who you are, and we know that you're not that,' because there is not a racist bone in my body. There is not one."
Deen also recently filmed a documentary about her life called "Canceled: The Paula Deen Story" that she said was voted the favorite at the Miami Film Festival and was "well-received" at the Toronto Film Festival.