Wing-Out restaurant in the Village remains closed amid complaints from employees about problems including missing paychecks, unpaid vendors and an unreachable owner. Owner Gary James, however, said many of these accusations are untrue.
A sign posted in the restaurant's door says it will reopen after Christmas, but 17 days after the holiday and four days into the school year, employees said they are unsure whether they still have their jobs.
Allister Greene, former Wing-Out employee and Ball State senior, said he doesn't think it will be opening again.
"There's been some shady business going on," Greene said.
James said he didn't know when the restaurant will reopen.
"We are just going through some reorganization," he said.
James would not comment any further on the issues.
Mark Sturgis of ADM Commercial Real Estate, which manages the property Wing-Out is leasing, said he was not aware of any problems with business.
"As far as we know, they just closed temporarily," he said.
While Sturgis said he was not permitted to share the status of his client's account, Greene said Wing-Out's owner, Gary James, had unpaid electric, trash and vendor bills. On Dec. 15, Wing-Out closed early because the water stopped working, he said.
James said the water bill was not paid, but that it wasn't his fault.
"That really wasn't an error because I wasn't up there day in and day out," he said. "There are other partners involved in this and so when the bills come, you know, and the partners are not up there then of course we don't get them."
James said the managers did not tell him when the bill arrived so he did not pay it.
"If we don't know about it, it can't be taken care of," he said. "Vendors not being paid, that doesn't have anything to do with anything."
The phone line for Wing-Out was not in service when called, and James said he knew nothing about it.
Workers said they could not reach James, and he confirmed that his cell phone was disconnected. He said, however, that employees still knew how to contact him. He also said he has left messages for assistant manager William Byrd and Greene, but Greene said neither he nor Byrd, his roommate, had gotten any messages.
At least five employees and former employees said they are owed money, including Byrd, who said he is owed at least $500. James said only three employees had not been paid. Byrd was supposed to call him during break, but never did, which is why Byrd has not been paid, James said.
"Yeah, he hasn't been paid because I haven't heard anything from him," James said. "I wouldn't cheat nobody out of anything."
Byrd, a Muncie resident, said he liked his job and had a good relationship with the owner. He still has keys to all of the restaurant's doors and said he has noticed things that were in the restaurant before break are now missing.
Byrd's roommate, Greene, said the cash register and most things essential to running the restaurant have been disconnected. He said mail is sitting on the floor.
James said he knew the cash register was gone, and it wasn't an issue.
Employees said management at the restaurant has been unsatisfactory for months.
"There were so many times when we would run out of things and Will [Byrd] would have to go to the store and buy big [orders of food]," employee and Ball State sophomore Susie Hansbarder said.
Greene said Wing-Out had a lot of complaints from customers about the quality of the food.
James said those problems were management issues.
Tabitha Luers, Wing-Out employee and Ball State senior, said she was not scheduled to work for two consecutive months, despite her open schedule. When she asked James for an explanation, he didn't have an answer for her, she said.
Employees from Wing-Out's Fishers location sometimes worked at the Muncie location even though some Muncie employees wouldn't get any hours for that week, employee and Ball State sophomore Matt Watkins said.
"That's inaccurate because I'm using Fishers' workers because the students would call off," James said. "They couldn't work on Thursday, Friday or Saturday."
Several employees said they had paychecks bounce or are missing them altogether. They said they are either owed money or have been paid cash by the owner.
"A couple of them did bounce," James said. "That's mainly because [the managers] were not making their deposits like they were supposed to."
He said the managers were supposed to take the deposits to the bank each night, but didn't, so there was not enough money in the account. The cashier is supposed to cash out the credit card machine so the funds can go into the bank, he said, and when he went to the restaurant, he said he noticed there was $1,500 to $1,600 on the system that had not been sent.
James, however, said he did not reprimand any of the employees for these mistakes.
"When they told me the check wouldn't go through, I immediately paid them," James said. He kept track of all cash paid for bounced checks, he said,
According to the Indiana Department of Labor's Web site, paychecks are due by midnight or the next regularly scheduled payday.
Luers also said she is missing two paychecks totaling $110.
During break, Hansbarder said she found out by mail that her paycheck had bounced, causing her rent check to do the same. She said she is upset because it made her look bad with the people who she leases her apartment from. Hansbarder estimates that James owes her $42.
"I've worked at Applebee's since I was 16 and I know how a restaurant is supposed to work," she said. "[Working at Wing-Out] was probably the worst experience I've ever had and it makes me really leery about ever working at a mom-and-pop restaurant ever again.
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