The brave St. Johns County teen who desperately fought off a kidnapping attempt during her shift at a St. Augustine vape shop last month has been fired from her job.
In an emotional interview conducted by the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office, Emma Marine, 18, recounted the horrific ordeal that was caught on surveillance cameras and has since made national headlines.
But despite her courageous attempt to thwart Theodore Tundidor’s robbery, Marine said the vape shop’s owner has since let her go.
“I’m still trying to recover from it,” she said. “Obviously it was pretty traumatic. Lately I’ve been trying to focus on myself and get back to work.”
Marine said it started out as a normal day. “He came in an hour and a half before the incident,” she recalled, exhaling and closing her eyes. “And then he just used the bathroom and left.”
When he returned, she said, “He used the bathroom again. He was only in there like two minutes. He came out, looked around a minute and then he went behind the counter and just started grabbing stuff and throwing it around and started putting stuff in his pockets.”
Marine tried to keep him from leaving with the stolen merchandise. “The entire time I’m asking him to go to the other side of the counter.” He said he would pay for it, blocked his way out”
Marine tried to block the front door, but Tundidor issued a threat.”
“He said, ‘What are you going to do about it?’” Marine recalled.
“I sort of froze up a little bit,” she continued. “And then he just pushed me out of the door and put me in a chokehold and dragged me out to the truck and tried shoving me in.”
“I just kept fighting back and screaming.”
When asked why she tried to stop him, Marine gave a quiet but telling answer: “Honestly, to keep my job. Because I was worried the boss was going to fire me if I didn’t.”
She explained that someone had previously stolen something during her sister’s shift, and her boss had threatened to fire them if it happened again.
When asked if she ever considered not fighting back, Marine paused.
“By the time he already had me I wasn’t thinking straight at all,” she said. “So at that point all I could do was fight back.”
Marine suffered several cuts on her wrist from the struggle.
Asked how she knew what to do in such a terrifying moment, Marine credited some crucial parental advice.
“My parents had always taught me that whenever you’re in any sort of danger, you always fight back,” she said.
She hopes what she went through can serve as guidance to others.
I hope this can show other women and young females like myself that you can fight back,” she said. “That it doesn’t matter how small you are.”
But despite surviving the attack and potentially preventing a far worse outcome, Marine said she was still let go by the store’s owner who hasn’t contacted her or her sibling since the incident.
“Pretty upsetting,” she said. “He was my boss for a few months and everything was going good up until that incident. And he just stopped talking to either of us.”
Marine credits bystander Kelley Eason — who called 911 at the scene — with helping to scare Tundidor off. “I am beyond thankful for her for being in that area and being able to get help that fast,” she said.
The teen said the harrowing experience has confirmed existing fears her environment. “The world is a scary place,” she said. “So you can never leave your guard down. Always watch around you.”
Now, she’s starting therapy and trying to move forward. “From there I’m going to figure out a job and hopefully that will help me keep my mind off everything.”
She left others with this final piece of advice: “Never be quiet. Always fight back no matter what. Kick, scream — all of it. It will do justice.”
Tundidor was on probation at the time for a separate violent outburst.
Earlier this year, Tundidor had been sentenced to 12 months probation after causing $38,000 in damage with a hammer during a drunken rampage at his mother’s home in Broward County.
Officers responding to that incident in November found smashed electronics, broken glass, ripped paintings, and a pulverized toilet. He was arrested after being found hiding in a closet, swinging a hammer at his mother’s belongings.
Following the St. Augustine kidnapping attempt, deputies said Tundidor fled the scene after Eason’s timely intervention.
He was spotted a short time later driving recklessly on A1A near Marineland by officers with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. After a brief pursuit, he was taken into custody without further incident.
He now faces multiple charges from both the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office and FWC, including kidnapping, robbery, grand theft auto, fleeing and eluding, and driving under the influence.
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