May 8, 2025 • 19 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, after Diablo's Southwest Grill in Georgia was broken into, owner Carl Wallace took an unexpected approach—posting a job offer to the perpetrator on Facebook instead of pressing charges. Here's Carl with his story of why.
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
And we continue with our American stories. And now we
have one of the co owners of Diablos Southwest Grille
here to share his story. Diablos was started by Carl
Wallace and brothers Brandon and Brad wall in Augusta, Georgia.
Here he is sharing his story of how this business
got started and how they operate.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Luckily, for me, you know, through life, all of my
success has come from challenges and what seemed sometimes like
really bad days actually set us up for the best days.
My wife had lost her job with Verizon when they
had bought out another company, and I had never cooked
a day of my life. So when she went back
(00:58):
to work, instead of working business hours, she started work
in retail hours, and then that led me to having
to cook for myself because she wouldn't get home to
nine or ten o'clock at night. And then I realized
I had a passion for cooking, and so actually Diablos
was born out of loss of a job for her.
And then I wanted to create a chain, not just
do someone else's dreams. I wanted to create my own dream.
(01:21):
So we created Diablos and grew from one store in
Augusta to were fixing open up our fifteenth store in
about two months. So the day before Easter Sunday, three
thirty four o'clock in the morning, we had a break in.
The individual smashed our front glass, gained entry into the
(01:42):
restaurant and then went to the register, immediately grabbed the register,
shook it around, snatched all the cords and wires.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
It made an absolute.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
Mess of all the register and the chain drawer, shook
it around, realized there was no money in there, threw
it to the ground, looked around the restaurant for about
ten more seconds. I realized there was, you know, no safe,
the safe was hidden, and actually ran right back out
of the restaurant as fast as he could get out.
Speaker 3 (02:09):
And the whole process was less than one minute.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
We were awakened by the security company calling us and
letting us know, and so we get to the restaurant.
My business partner brand and got there first, you know.
So then he let me know. As a social media
guy for Diablos, you know, I had to come up
with a post because my initial reaction was like, man,
we're going to have to put up a piece of
plywood over this, this broken door, just to get the
(02:37):
restaurant open and operating, and it was also a challenge
to get opened by eleven o'clock with getting the register
reset back up replaced.
Speaker 3 (02:44):
You know, it was just a big frustration.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
And then again it was how do I let the
customers know that, you know, if their first visit to
Diablos and they've got a plywood door, I mean, this.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
Looks really bad for a business.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
I came up with a kind of a thing off
you see are on Facebook if you see our door
looking hurricane fabulous.
Speaker 3 (03:03):
This is why.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
And for some reason, just because of the Easter weekend
and just really thinking about the robber and like in
that moment and what had happened to in his life
that he literally broke in at three thirty in the
morning into a restaurant stop. I'm not a morning person.
I don't want to be anywhere at three thirty in
the morning. Here he is, three thirty in the morning,
breaking into restaurants, risking his life. If the restaurant owner
(03:26):
had have been there, if the police would have showed up,
and it would have gone bad in the altercation, so
many things, and the guy didn't make one penny. As
I'm typing the Facebook message, you know, so to let
people know. I just kind of shifted and was like,
you know, what, what would Jesus do in this moment?
Would what would be his response to how this went down?
(03:47):
As I kept writing and typing it up the Facebook post,
my heart just was the guide and I decided that
you know, look, maybe we can be a mentor for
this guy. I know it's a radical thought. I know
it's a radical change. And then kind of realized, too, wow,
this is crazy that trying to be a little bit
more helpful for somebody that's doing wrong in life is
a radical change in direction. I had no clue that
(04:11):
it was going to go viral. I was not trying
to go viral with it. A lot of people online
thought it was a trap, and there was a company
that did this as a trap.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
But my heart was in the right place.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
And if this guy was trying to put food on
the table and he can't find a job for whatever reason,
I wanted to be there for that guy.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
I wanted to be the change in his life.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
And again maybe a little bit from from the past
of my life, where you know, some of my best
days came out of my worst days. If this was
the reason that the guy had a different career path
and we could mentor him.
Speaker 3 (04:43):
I wanted to be there for that person.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
The post ended up going viral pretty quickly on a
local level, and then the two local stations reached out
and did new stories that Saturday, and both reporters said,
this is going to go really, really viral, and I laughed.
Speaker 3 (04:58):
And didn't think so.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
And then the next next morning, Easter Sunday, I got
a phone call from the UK National.
Speaker 3 (05:04):
News and someone had made a meme on Reddit.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
The meme had got up voted on Reddit and then
picked up by the.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
News station and that was a national wire for the UK.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
And then by the afternoon CNN had called, the Today
Show had called, and we just were fielding phone calls
from all over the world, Australia and even was picked
up on the Saudi Arabia News. Unfortunately, the story doesn't
have a happy ending. We were tipped off to who
the individual was from a friend of that individual who
(05:34):
saw it on the National News.
Speaker 3 (05:35):
Knew that this guy, this was his deal. He's been
doing this for a long time in life.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
And we believe that he was picked up in South
Georgia for the same crimes about a month ago. We
don't know that for certain, but all the parameters fit.
This individual was in Augusta that weekend that had happened,
but it looks like he will be serving time in
South Georgia for the same offense because he was caught.
But there was so much attention brought to the story
on a national level, and we had so many people
(06:02):
reach out. My cell number is in the Facebook post.
It's very very simple to reach me. So I had
people reach out from all over the place and just
stories of you know, letting us know how we inspired
them to do better in their own life. And I
guess at the end of the day, if it made
a change in someone's life, then everything.
Speaker 3 (06:20):
Was worth it.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
Three or four days after the incident, I had a
phone call around five o'clock and luckily my family was
actually around with me. Got a phone call and the
individual was in tears. Lives in Millersville, Georgia, and said
that he had spent a lot of his life in jail,
incarcerated for crimes, and he was really broken up in
speech as he was trying to talk, and he said.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
I just want to let you know that if the
guy that I robbed.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
Would have had your response, I would have spent the
last fifteen years free versus the last fifteen years incarcerated.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
And he said, by the time I woke.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
Up in life and realized that I was being a
bad human, I had a lot of dues left to
pay to society. He said, you know, nobody does what
you're doing. It really touched me. That was that was
probably one of my most touching phone calls.
Speaker 3 (07:08):
From everybody that had reached out.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
He said, every time that they would throw me in
the jail, I'd come back out with more anger to
do more wrong. And he said, if somebody would have
showed me some compassion, it would have stopped. It could
have stopped my cycle of of what I've done in life.
You know, he said, if you ever in Militville, Georgia,
here's where I work, come by and see me. I
want to hug you and shake your hand and tell
you what a great person you are.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
And that that meant That meant everything to me.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
You know, you're you're really making a difference, and you're
making a change in someone's life. And I've always tried
to live a life of respect and understanding. One of
the things that I tell my employees we never know
what's going on in someone's life.
Speaker 3 (07:45):
We don't know if they're just having their worst day.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
Our job is as a restaurant owner, is to serve
you and to be there and be a small part
of your day. But what we don't know is what's
going on in someone else's life across that line. You know,
you could have gotten fired from your and you walked out,
grabbed your stuff and walked out of your job and
it was the best job you ever had. And three
minutes later, you're inside my restaurant, you know, and the
(08:09):
best thing we can do is be there with a
smile and just try to make your experience great. But
on the other side, that person just just had a
bad his worst day ever.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
He's going to be a little upset.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
He's going to be edgy, and sometimes they project that
against us.
Speaker 3 (08:26):
And what I tell my staff is they're not projecting
it to you about you.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
It's what's going on in their life to put them
in that situation at that moment. We've had some cases
customer complaint resolution found out that the woman was visiting
a hospital which is across the street from one of
my stores. Was visiting the hospital when her mother was
passing away, and she was literally spending the last moments
of her life with her mother. And of course she's
(08:52):
going to be edgy with the staff, and so her
situation and what happened had nothing to do with my staff.
It had more to do with where her mind was
in my own personal life. I try to be remindful
of what everybody's going through in life, and not everybody's
having a great day.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
And you've been listening to Carl Wallace tell one heck
of a story about how kindness and mercy they work
in ways you don't even know, and in ways that
are indirect and mysterious and beautiful. When we come back
more of Carl Wallace, who run Diablo's Southwest Grill, a
chain of restaurants a part of his American dream here
(09:33):
on our American Stories. And we continue with our American Stories.
(10:12):
We've been listening to the co owner of Diablo's Southwest
Grill in Georgia share the story of when a man
broke into their story to steal money. Instead of wanting
to find the perpetrator to press charges against them under
Carl Wallace decided to take a different approach. He made
a post on Facebook offering the man a resume and
a conversation. To Carl's great surprise, the post went viral.
(10:34):
Let's go back to.
Speaker 3 (10:35):
Carl and again.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
I just kept coming back to I can't believe that
this is viral, that a strange approach to someone that
who's done you wrong is garning so much attention across
America and really across the world. It was a simple act,
and I guess anybody that gets robbed is going to
have the initial reaction of you know, anger, frustration, or
(11:02):
you know, if I caught you in the act, I
would have killed you. They didn't harm my family, I
wasn't threatened, none of my employees were at risk. Nobody
was at risk, and they didn't steal any money. I
think I'd have been a little more frustrated if some
money was taken, but it wasn't. I mean absolutely, other
than a couple hundred dollars for a broken glass door
that was completely replaced. The crazy flip side of it
(11:24):
is the outpouring of support from the community. Our salves
have been up probably ten percent in our local market
since that happened. We gained so many new customers that
it's been unbelievable that how many people came In the
first couple of days, I was doing an interview and
a local radio personality Share Best came by and she
(11:45):
just came by to pay it forward and wanted just
she walked up to the register and paid for a
person's meal just because she's like, I want to pay
it forward. And she walked in and just paid for
a family's meal that she didn't even know. She's like,
you inspired me to pay it forward, and she came
by the restaurant to bless somebody else.
Speaker 3 (12:05):
Just little incidences like that.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
That happened so many times over the next couple of days.
That was just absolutely unbelievable that, you know, how the
community reached out and supported us back, and we've been
paid for that door one hundred times over. You just
don't think that a small act of kindness is going
to reach that much attention.
Speaker 3 (12:25):
You know. Some of the comments.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
Online were had one lady say I wish I could
marry Carl and I thought it was hilarious.
Speaker 3 (12:32):
My wife didn't.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
Find it quite as funny, but she said, well, you
come with more problems than you come with.
Speaker 3 (12:39):
She needs to she gets the problems and the good
as well.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
You know, none of us are perfect people. I was
more amused than my wife was amused about it.
Speaker 3 (12:47):
But yeah, it's it's like that.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
One little instance of kindness, and this person thinks that
everybody thinks that you're a perfect person, and nobody's a
perfect person.
Speaker 3 (12:56):
You just you try to.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
Live life the best you can and do the best
for people. And so many text messages from people all
over the world. Again, my cell number was on the
Facebook post that went viral all over the world, so
it didn't take but half a second to type my
number in and shoot a text over and just tell
me what your thoughts were on what I did. And
you know, of course I got a few that said
(13:18):
I was crazy, But that's okay.
Speaker 3 (13:19):
I'm fine with that. You know, that's my decision to
do what I want.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
And we're all have the right to lead our life
the way we think is right.
Speaker 3 (13:29):
We're all going to be judged.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
But if you're going to judge me bad for doing right,
then that's a problem for you, not a problem for me.
I got a few texts of you're what's wrong in
this country? People should be locked up and people should
be should pay.
Speaker 3 (13:45):
For their crimes.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
And then I was always happy to respond back and say, well,
if we don't break that cycle for somebody, and we
keep doing this, who have we fixed?
Speaker 3 (13:56):
Who have we helped in life?
Speaker 2 (13:58):
I don't know how we've changed into a society that
decides to judge others for what they feel is correct.
I went viral for my kid's a kicker fourteen. I
made a field goal and we've got a lot of land,
and so I put it in the front yard, made
a TikTok about it and said, the best thing you
can do, as apparent is to support is support your child,
even if it means putting a field goal in the
(14:19):
front yard. And that went kind of viral on TikTok,
which then ESPN picked it up, and so then ESPN
posted it to their Instagram and it says, you know,
father builds field goal for his kid, blah blah blah.
And so he had five hundred and twenty five thousand likes,
but in five thousand and something comments, and the crazy
(14:40):
thing is four thousand of the comments were negative. You know,
that's an unfair advantage. You know, why would somebody do that?
Why would some you know, like, my kid doesn't have
that opportunity. And then you know some were you know,
a little tongue in cheek imagine having a field goal
and a dad, you know kind of thing.
Speaker 3 (14:58):
Yeah, so you.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
Know, I was right on top of it when it
when it landed on ESPN's Instagram, and I'm reading the
first thirty comments and I'm just floored that I'm getting
I'm getting negative, you know, like watch what happens. He's
gonna you know, dad spend all that money and the
kid's gonna quit. And I'm like, my kid's been playing
sports since four years old.
Speaker 3 (15:20):
Like that's all my kid cares about.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
That's that's my that's my kid's passion. He's not gonna quit.
They're like all this money and he's not gonna go anywhere.
And I'm like, well, he's currently the fifth rank kicker
in the country right now.
Speaker 3 (15:31):
So like, I don't, you know, I don't understand the
hate it. But but the.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
Sad part of it was is that that's where we're
at in society, that you try to do something great
for your child and give him and help him chase
his dreams, and that little bit of money that I
spent to put a field goal up has really helped
his success.
Speaker 3 (15:53):
But I never realized that that would.
Speaker 2 (15:55):
Contribute to hate because you're trying to just do what's
right for.
Speaker 3 (15:58):
Your child and support your child.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
And we're now a part of society that is that
is looked down upon, you know, because somebody else doesn't
have the opportunity, that it's not right for you to
have that opportunity. One of my favorite things is an employer,
is to be able to mentor some of my employees
when they when they ask for help and ask for
business advice, and I enjoy being there for them. That's
(16:23):
one of my I love my paycheck, but I love
being able to help employees on their whatever their career
path may be in life and whatever advice that I'm
able to help them with. And I've been very successful
in life, and I've been very fortunate. I've worked very
hard for it on two other companies along with Diabolos.
And one of the things I instilled in my own kid,
(16:43):
who's fourteen, is that you don't have to be the
smartest kid, but if you're the hardest working kid, you'll
probably survive in life.
Speaker 3 (16:50):
You'll probably do very very well. I've had over the years.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
Some teachers, you know, want me to come back and
do you know, mentoring in class and you know, give
my testimony so to speak to the kids. And I'm like,
my testimony is not that great. It's I didn't do
well in school. I was fifty one remedial just about everything.
But I applied myself in life and I worked hard
and always had a vision in a dream. And if
(17:15):
you have a vision in a dream and you're working
towards those visions and dreams, you're generally gonna make it.
And a lot of kids sometimes just don't have a dream,
you know, they just they're going through life. I was
fortunate to always have a dream of what I wanted
to achieve.
Speaker 3 (17:28):
And same thing with Diablos.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
I wanted to create a regional chain of restaurants and
you know, be anywhere from you know, fifty stores to
one hundred stores. And my banker set and looked at
me and he said, that's just about an unachievable task
out of Augusta, Georgia. And we did it, and we
started franchising and we've been very blessed. But nobody supports
us like our local community does. And so we're happy
(17:53):
to give back. During the COVID we ended up feeding
some homeless people and just doing what we could in
the community. We've had some kids that were no longer
getting school meals, and so we did what we could
to support our community back.
Speaker 1 (18:12):
And a special thanks to a few members of our team, Madison,
Robbie and Faith for the great work on that story.
And how often do you hear stories about businessmen in
the movies in the mainstream media. That sounded like that
the good guys a real good guy and we love
(18:32):
bringing you stories and voices like this from all over
the country. You've been listening to Carl Wallace. I love
what he said when he said some of my best
days came from my worst days. Indeed, that's how the
cooking started. And then having that vision. I love that
he confessed that he wasn't a very good student. Who cares.
So many kids struggle through high school college, but they
have passions and talents that go beyond. We love telling
(18:55):
these stories. We love getting these stories from you. Send
them to our americanstories dot Com. There's some of our
favorites these stories. If you have a story in your town,
an entrepreneur who's done something like this or a random
act of kindness, which is all he did. It was
a random act of kindness. And look at the response
the story of Carl Wallace here on our American story
And we continue with our American stories. And now we
have one of the co owners of Diablos Southwest Grille
here to share his story. Diablos was started by Carl
Wallace and brothers Brandon and Brad wall in Augusta, Georgia.
Here he is sharing his story of how this business
got started and how they operate.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Luckily, for me, you know, through life, all of my
success has come from challenges and what seemed sometimes like
really bad days actually set us up for the best days.
My wife had lost her job with Verizon when they
had bought out another company, and I had never cooked
a day of my life. So when she went back
(00:58):
to work, instead of working business hours, she started work
in retail hours, and then that led me to having
to cook for myself because she wouldn't get home to
nine or ten o'clock at night. And then I realized
I had a passion for cooking, and so actually Diablos
was born out of loss of a job for her.
And then I wanted to create a chain, not just
do someone else's dreams. I wanted to create my own dream.
(01:21):
So we created Diablos and grew from one store in
Augusta to were fixing open up our fifteenth store in
about two months. So the day before Easter Sunday, three
thirty four o'clock in the morning, we had a break in.
The individual smashed our front glass, gained entry into the
(01:42):
restaurant and then went to the register, immediately grabbed the register,
shook it around, snatched all the cords and wires.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
It made an absolute.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
Mess of all the register and the chain drawer, shook
it around, realized there was no money in there, threw
it to the ground, looked around the restaurant for about
ten more seconds. I realized there was, you know, no safe,
the safe was hidden, and actually ran right back out
of the restaurant as fast as he could get out.
Speaker 3 (02:09):
And the whole process was less than one minute.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
We were awakened by the security company calling us and
letting us know, and so we get to the restaurant.
My business partner brand and got there first, you know.
So then he let me know. As a social media
guy for Diablos, you know, I had to come up
with a post because my initial reaction was like, man,
we're going to have to put up a piece of
plywood over this, this broken door, just to get the
(02:37):
restaurant open and operating, and it was also a challenge
to get opened by eleven o'clock with getting the register
reset back up replaced.
Speaker 3 (02:44):
You know, it was just a big frustration.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
And then again it was how do I let the
customers know that, you know, if their first visit to
Diablos and they've got a plywood door, I mean, this.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
Looks really bad for a business.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
I came up with a kind of a thing off
you see are on Facebook if you see our door
looking hurricane fabulous.
Speaker 3 (03:03):
This is why.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
And for some reason, just because of the Easter weekend
and just really thinking about the robber and like in
that moment and what had happened to in his life
that he literally broke in at three thirty in the
morning into a restaurant stop. I'm not a morning person.
I don't want to be anywhere at three thirty in
the morning. Here he is, three thirty in the morning,
breaking into restaurants, risking his life. If the restaurant owner
(03:26):
had have been there, if the police would have showed up,
and it would have gone bad in the altercation, so
many things, and the guy didn't make one penny. As
I'm typing the Facebook message, you know, so to let
people know. I just kind of shifted and was like,
you know, what, what would Jesus do in this moment?
Would what would be his response to how this went down?
(03:47):
As I kept writing and typing it up the Facebook post,
my heart just was the guide and I decided that
you know, look, maybe we can be a mentor for
this guy. I know it's a radical thought. I know
it's a radical change. And then kind of realized, too, wow,
this is crazy that trying to be a little bit
more helpful for somebody that's doing wrong in life is
a radical change in direction. I had no clue that
(04:11):
it was going to go viral. I was not trying
to go viral with it. A lot of people online
thought it was a trap, and there was a company
that did this as a trap.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
But my heart was in the right place.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
And if this guy was trying to put food on
the table and he can't find a job for whatever reason,
I wanted to be there for that guy.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
I wanted to be the change in his life.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
And again maybe a little bit from from the past
of my life, where you know, some of my best
days came out of my worst days. If this was
the reason that the guy had a different career path
and we could mentor him.
Speaker 3 (04:43):
I wanted to be there for that person.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
The post ended up going viral pretty quickly on a
local level, and then the two local stations reached out
and did new stories that Saturday, and both reporters said,
this is going to go really, really viral, and I laughed.
Speaker 3 (04:58):
And didn't think so.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
And then the next next morning, Easter Sunday, I got
a phone call from the UK National.
Speaker 3 (05:04):
News and someone had made a meme on Reddit.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
The meme had got up voted on Reddit and then
picked up by the.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
News station and that was a national wire for the UK.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
And then by the afternoon CNN had called, the Today
Show had called, and we just were fielding phone calls
from all over the world, Australia and even was picked
up on the Saudi Arabia News. Unfortunately, the story doesn't
have a happy ending. We were tipped off to who
the individual was from a friend of that individual who
(05:34):
saw it on the National News.
Speaker 3 (05:35):
Knew that this guy, this was his deal. He's been
doing this for a long time in life.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
And we believe that he was picked up in South
Georgia for the same crimes about a month ago. We
don't know that for certain, but all the parameters fit.
This individual was in Augusta that weekend that had happened,
but it looks like he will be serving time in
South Georgia for the same offense because he was caught.
But there was so much attention brought to the story
on a national level, and we had so many people
(06:02):
reach out. My cell number is in the Facebook post.
It's very very simple to reach me. So I had
people reach out from all over the place and just
stories of you know, letting us know how we inspired
them to do better in their own life. And I
guess at the end of the day, if it made
a change in someone's life, then everything.
Speaker 3 (06:20):
Was worth it.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
Three or four days after the incident, I had a
phone call around five o'clock and luckily my family was
actually around with me. Got a phone call and the
individual was in tears. Lives in Millersville, Georgia, and said
that he had spent a lot of his life in jail,
incarcerated for crimes, and he was really broken up in
speech as he was trying to talk, and he said.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
I just want to let you know that if the
guy that I robbed.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
Would have had your response, I would have spent the
last fifteen years free versus the last fifteen years incarcerated.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
And he said, by the time I woke.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
Up in life and realized that I was being a
bad human, I had a lot of dues left to
pay to society. He said, you know, nobody does what
you're doing. It really touched me. That was that was
probably one of my most touching phone calls.
Speaker 3 (07:08):
From everybody that had reached out.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
He said, every time that they would throw me in
the jail, I'd come back out with more anger to
do more wrong. And he said, if somebody would have
showed me some compassion, it would have stopped. It could
have stopped my cycle of of what I've done in life.
You know, he said, if you ever in Militville, Georgia,
here's where I work, come by and see me. I
want to hug you and shake your hand and tell
you what a great person you are.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
And that that meant That meant everything to me.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
You know, you're you're really making a difference, and you're
making a change in someone's life. And I've always tried
to live a life of respect and understanding. One of
the things that I tell my employees we never know
what's going on in someone's life.
Speaker 3 (07:45):
We don't know if they're just having their worst day.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
Our job is as a restaurant owner, is to serve
you and to be there and be a small part
of your day. But what we don't know is what's
going on in someone else's life across that line. You know,
you could have gotten fired from your and you walked out,
grabbed your stuff and walked out of your job and
it was the best job you ever had. And three
minutes later, you're inside my restaurant, you know, and the
(08:09):
best thing we can do is be there with a
smile and just try to make your experience great. But
on the other side, that person just just had a
bad his worst day ever.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
He's going to be a little upset.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
He's going to be edgy, and sometimes they project that
against us.
Speaker 3 (08:26):
And what I tell my staff is they're not projecting
it to you about you.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
It's what's going on in their life to put them
in that situation at that moment. We've had some cases
customer complaint resolution found out that the woman was visiting
a hospital which is across the street from one of
my stores. Was visiting the hospital when her mother was
passing away, and she was literally spending the last moments
of her life with her mother. And of course she's
(08:52):
going to be edgy with the staff, and so her
situation and what happened had nothing to do with my staff.
It had more to do with where her mind was
in my own personal life. I try to be remindful
of what everybody's going through in life, and not everybody's
having a great day.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
And you've been listening to Carl Wallace tell one heck
of a story about how kindness and mercy they work
in ways you don't even know, and in ways that
are indirect and mysterious and beautiful. When we come back
more of Carl Wallace, who run Diablo's Southwest Grill, a
chain of restaurants a part of his American dream here
(09:33):
on our American Stories. And we continue with our American Stories.
(10:12):
We've been listening to the co owner of Diablo's Southwest
Grill in Georgia share the story of when a man
broke into their story to steal money. Instead of wanting
to find the perpetrator to press charges against them under
Carl Wallace decided to take a different approach. He made
a post on Facebook offering the man a resume and
a conversation. To Carl's great surprise, the post went viral.
(10:34):
Let's go back to.
Speaker 3 (10:35):
Carl and again.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
I just kept coming back to I can't believe that
this is viral, that a strange approach to someone that
who's done you wrong is garning so much attention across
America and really across the world. It was a simple act,
and I guess anybody that gets robbed is going to
have the initial reaction of you know, anger, frustration, or
(11:02):
you know, if I caught you in the act, I
would have killed you. They didn't harm my family, I
wasn't threatened, none of my employees were at risk. Nobody
was at risk, and they didn't steal any money. I
think I'd have been a little more frustrated if some
money was taken, but it wasn't. I mean absolutely, other
than a couple hundred dollars for a broken glass door
that was completely replaced. The crazy flip side of it
(11:24):
is the outpouring of support from the community. Our salves
have been up probably ten percent in our local market
since that happened. We gained so many new customers that
it's been unbelievable that how many people came In the
first couple of days, I was doing an interview and
a local radio personality Share Best came by and she
(11:45):
just came by to pay it forward and wanted just
she walked up to the register and paid for a
person's meal just because she's like, I want to pay
it forward. And she walked in and just paid for
a family's meal that she didn't even know. She's like,
you inspired me to pay it forward, and she came
by the restaurant to bless somebody else.
Speaker 3 (12:05):
Just little incidences like that.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
That happened so many times over the next couple of days.
That was just absolutely unbelievable that, you know, how the
community reached out and supported us back, and we've been
paid for that door one hundred times over. You just
don't think that a small act of kindness is going
to reach that much attention.
Speaker 3 (12:25):
You know. Some of the comments.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
Online were had one lady say I wish I could
marry Carl and I thought it was hilarious.
Speaker 3 (12:32):
My wife didn't.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
Find it quite as funny, but she said, well, you
come with more problems than you come with.
Speaker 3 (12:39):
She needs to she gets the problems and the good
as well.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
You know, none of us are perfect people. I was
more amused than my wife was amused about it.
Speaker 3 (12:47):
But yeah, it's it's like that.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
One little instance of kindness, and this person thinks that
everybody thinks that you're a perfect person, and nobody's a
perfect person.
Speaker 3 (12:56):
You just you try to.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
Live life the best you can and do the best
for people. And so many text messages from people all
over the world. Again, my cell number was on the
Facebook post that went viral all over the world, so
it didn't take but half a second to type my
number in and shoot a text over and just tell
me what your thoughts were on what I did. And
you know, of course I got a few that said
(13:18):
I was crazy, But that's okay.
Speaker 3 (13:19):
I'm fine with that. You know, that's my decision to
do what I want.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
And we're all have the right to lead our life
the way we think is right.
Speaker 3 (13:29):
We're all going to be judged.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
But if you're going to judge me bad for doing right,
then that's a problem for you, not a problem for me.
I got a few texts of you're what's wrong in
this country? People should be locked up and people should
be should pay.
Speaker 3 (13:45):
For their crimes.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
And then I was always happy to respond back and say, well,
if we don't break that cycle for somebody, and we
keep doing this, who have we fixed?
Speaker 3 (13:56):
Who have we helped in life?
Speaker 2 (13:58):
I don't know how we've changed into a society that
decides to judge others for what they feel is correct.
I went viral for my kid's a kicker fourteen. I
made a field goal and we've got a lot of land,
and so I put it in the front yard, made
a TikTok about it and said, the best thing you
can do, as apparent is to support is support your child,
even if it means putting a field goal in the
(14:19):
front yard. And that went kind of viral on TikTok,
which then ESPN picked it up, and so then ESPN
posted it to their Instagram and it says, you know,
father builds field goal for his kid, blah blah blah.
And so he had five hundred and twenty five thousand likes,
but in five thousand and something comments, and the crazy
(14:40):
thing is four thousand of the comments were negative. You know,
that's an unfair advantage. You know, why would somebody do that?
Why would some you know, like, my kid doesn't have
that opportunity. And then you know some were you know,
a little tongue in cheek imagine having a field goal
and a dad, you know kind of thing.
Speaker 3 (14:58):
Yeah, so you.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
Know, I was right on top of it when it
when it landed on ESPN's Instagram, and I'm reading the
first thirty comments and I'm just floored that I'm getting
I'm getting negative, you know, like watch what happens. He's
gonna you know, dad spend all that money and the
kid's gonna quit. And I'm like, my kid's been playing
sports since four years old.
Speaker 3 (15:20):
Like that's all my kid cares about.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
That's that's my that's my kid's passion. He's not gonna quit.
They're like all this money and he's not gonna go anywhere.
And I'm like, well, he's currently the fifth rank kicker
in the country right now.
Speaker 3 (15:31):
So like, I don't, you know, I don't understand the
hate it. But but the.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
Sad part of it was is that that's where we're
at in society, that you try to do something great
for your child and give him and help him chase
his dreams, and that little bit of money that I
spent to put a field goal up has really helped
his success.
Speaker 3 (15:53):
But I never realized that that would.
Speaker 2 (15:55):
Contribute to hate because you're trying to just do what's
right for.
Speaker 3 (15:58):
Your child and support your child.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
And we're now a part of society that is that
is looked down upon, you know, because somebody else doesn't
have the opportunity, that it's not right for you to
have that opportunity. One of my favorite things is an employer,
is to be able to mentor some of my employees
when they when they ask for help and ask for
business advice, and I enjoy being there for them. That's
(16:23):
one of my I love my paycheck, but I love
being able to help employees on their whatever their career
path may be in life and whatever advice that I'm
able to help them with. And I've been very successful
in life, and I've been very fortunate. I've worked very
hard for it on two other companies along with Diabolos.
And one of the things I instilled in my own kid,
(16:43):
who's fourteen, is that you don't have to be the
smartest kid, but if you're the hardest working kid, you'll
probably survive in life.
Speaker 3 (16:50):
You'll probably do very very well. I've had over the years.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
Some teachers, you know, want me to come back and
do you know, mentoring in class and you know, give
my testimony so to speak to the kids. And I'm like,
my testimony is not that great. It's I didn't do
well in school. I was fifty one remedial just about everything.
But I applied myself in life and I worked hard
and always had a vision in a dream. And if
(17:15):
you have a vision in a dream and you're working
towards those visions and dreams, you're generally gonna make it.
And a lot of kids sometimes just don't have a dream,
you know, they just they're going through life. I was
fortunate to always have a dream of what I wanted
to achieve.
Speaker 3 (17:28):
And same thing with Diablos.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
I wanted to create a regional chain of restaurants and
you know, be anywhere from you know, fifty stores to
one hundred stores. And my banker set and looked at
me and he said, that's just about an unachievable task
out of Augusta, Georgia. And we did it, and we
started franchising and we've been very blessed. But nobody supports
us like our local community does. And so we're happy
(17:53):
to give back. During the COVID we ended up feeding
some homeless people and just doing what we could in
the community. We've had some kids that were no longer
getting school meals, and so we did what we could
to support our community back.
Speaker 1 (18:12):
And a special thanks to a few members of our team, Madison,
Robbie and Faith for the great work on that story.
And how often do you hear stories about businessmen in
the movies in the mainstream media. That sounded like that
the good guys a real good guy and we love
(18:32):
bringing you stories and voices like this from all over
the country. You've been listening to Carl Wallace. I love
what he said when he said some of my best
days came from my worst days. Indeed, that's how the
cooking started. And then having that vision. I love that
he confessed that he wasn't a very good student. Who cares.
So many kids struggle through high school college, but they
have passions and talents that go beyond. We love telling
(18:55):
these stories. We love getting these stories from you. Send
them to our americanstories dot Com. There's some of our
favorites these stories. If you have a story in your town,
an entrepreneur who's done something like this or a random
act of kindness, which is all he did. It was
a random act of kindness. And look at the response
the story of Carl Wallace here on our American story
Host
Lee Habeeb
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