Ex-McDonald's Employee Sentenced In Botched Union County Robbery

UNION COUNTY, NJ — A Plainfield man who was found guilty of robbing a McDonald's in Scotch Plains in 2015 was sentenced to nine years in state prison, Union County Prosecutor William A. Daniel announced Friday.

Thomas H. Outland, 54, must serve 85 percent of the sentence before the possibility of parole, under the provisions of New Jersey's No Early Release Act, according to Judge Robert A. Kirsh who announced the ruling.

This sentence will run consecutively to a previously imposed sentence of 16 years in an unrelated robbery that took place in April 2014.

He was previously found guilty of the robbery in 2017 and was later convicted on charges of second-degree conspiracy to commit robbery and fourth-degree possession of an imitation firearm this past June.

Read more: Union Co. Man Found Guilty Of Robbing McDonald's In 2015: Prosecutors

On Sept. 4, 2015, Outland and an unidentified co-conspirator, both of whom were wearing masks and carrying guns, entered an unlocked door of the McDonald's on Route 22 in Scotch Plains at about 12:30 a.m.,prosecutors said.

The unidentified man then demanded the cell phones of some of the employees who were cleaning the restaurant at the end of their shift. At the same time, Outland — a former employee of the McDonald's ‚ began walking toward the manager's office where a safe was located.

Prosecutors said Outland was then intercepted by one of the store employees who loudly asserted that Outland's weapon was fake and suggested Outland could get killed.

At that time, Outland removed his mask, lowered his imitation gun, and announced to the restaurant employees he was playing a "practical joke," according to prosecutors.

Outland and the other man, who never removed his mask, then returned the employees' cell phones and immediately left the restaurant, prosecutors said.

Following an investigation by the Scotch Plains Police Department, Outland was arrested in Jan. 2016 and indicted a month later.

The incident took place when Outland was free on bail in connection with an unrelated robbery that took place in April 2014, according to prosecutors. A jury convicted Outland on multiple charges associated with that crime in May of 2016 and he was sentenced to an extended term of 16 years in state prison for the robbery charges.