COVID-19: Restaurant owner sells Mustang to pay staff

The coronavirus pandemic has made life extremely tough all over the world with countless companies shutting down and thousands of people losing their jobs. The situation in Georgia is dire too (there have been more than 17,000 confirmed cases…) and like so many a restaurant owner in the town of Smyra has been forced to close down her eatery and lay off most of her staff – but not without a wonderfully kind gesture first.

Vittles Restaurant has been serving southern food for more than three decades but like most small businesses it had fallen on hard times due to COVID-19.

But instead of letting her staff go without a pay check, Charity Salyers decided to sell her treasured 2016 Ford Mustang GT - and use the $11,000 made from the sale to pay her eight employees and cover rent.

During the crisis, her restaurant proceeds had dropped from an average of $3,500 to just $300 and to keep it afloat and maintain payroll she made the hard choice of selling the V8-powered muscle car.

"At that time, I just had to make a rash decision, and that was the only thing I could do to make enough money to carry myself forward for a few months and stay open," Salyers said.

She continued the money would be enough to "carry me forward for two months. And I figured two months would give us enough time for these [Covid-19 case] numbers to go down and be able to reopen."

She had only bought the candy apple red Ford - with a 5.0-litre motor - a few months ago and it was her only car, but now two of her employees are giving her lifts to and from work.