Pizza Hut employee shoots would-be robber

A police report said Spencer Simmons, 44, attempted to rob the Pizza Hut on Broadway Street at about 11 p.m. Wednesday.

The report said Simmons pointed a .25 Raven Arms semi-automatic handgun at the store’s cashier and demanded money. The cashier loaded about $720 into a small bag.

Simmons wasn’t aware that a delivery man, Michael Shaker, had heard the commotion and snuck to the back as well, the report said.

Shaker shot the robber in the back of the head. I’m a little fuzzy about how he managed that if the criminal tried to point his gun at Shaker after a verbal warning, but all’s well that ends well.

Last I heard, Pizza Hut policy forbids weapons. Will Shaker lose his job over this?

Here’s another bit on the Pizza Guy issue:

Southside precinct officers go undercover to prevent robberies

Savannah cops posing as delivery drivers in hopes of catching criminals in the act. Or at least making them think twice before robbing someone.

Navies have used “Q-ships,” vessels that look like merchant ships but are well-armed with concealed weaponry, to lure enemy submarines into attacking. Then the guns come out and the predator becomes the prey. Though the actual results of Q-ships in action weren’t stellar, the principle is sound and it’s a solid tactic in deterring attack.

The same thing can be said for defense of cops working to deceive would-be pizza delivery robbers. They’ll no doubt make robbers take the time to be sure of their target, which can help legit targets get out of the danger zone before things go bad. And maybe the cops will even nab a robber or two. That’s great, for what it’s worth.

But overall, the results are likely to be minor. Worth the effort, but not a solution.

Pizza Delivery Persons Face Robbery and Driving Risks

A driver’s “topper,” the lighted box magnetized to the top of the vehicle, works as a double-agent. It advertises the driver’s employer, but the topper also says, “The driver of this vehicle has cash.”

“The topper makes you a target,” says former Jet’s driver Danny Rowe, 21, of Lakeland. “It’s like driving around with a target on your car.”

Typical no-weapon policies make it an even more inviting target, I’d guess.

I’ve never worked as a delivery driver, so I can’t speak from personal experience. But if I really felt that I was threatened, and I imagine I would if I delivered pizzas, I would carry a weapon every day and get fired later if I ever had to use it. My guess is that most readers of this site feel the same way.

Two pizza shop employees were headed out with the night deposit:

“At approximately 9:30 p.m., two male employees were getting into a vehicle with the night deposit when two black males approached their car,” Thompson said. “One of the suspects was armed with a handgun, while the other was holding a piece of lumber.”

Thompson said the victims were ordered to lie on the ground.

“While the victims were on the ground, they were both struck in the head with a blunt object,” Thompson said.

Cooperating with bad guys doesn’t always work out.

Philadelphia area:

PORT RICHMOND – August 9, 2009 (WPVI) — A pizza shop owner in Philadelphia fought back when a man tried to rob him at gunpoint.

The attempted robbery happened inside Tony’s Pizza on the 2900 block of Frankford Avenue in the city’s Port Richmond section.

Police say an armed gunman walked into the pizza shop at 11:45 Saturday night demanding money, but the owner pulled out his own gun and shot the robber.

The would-be thief is now in critical condition.

The ‘Pizza Guys‘ category was originally intended for delivery drivers defending themselves against would-be robbers, but it’s basically expanded to include pizza shops as well.

Murdoc likes him some pizza, and crimes committed against the makers and deliverers of pizza are essentially an attack on Murdoc’s way of life.

Got a heads up recently about James Spiers, a Pizza Hut driver who used a handgun to defend himself from robbers and was fired for violating the company’s no-weapons policy. I wrote about the incident a couple of times last year:

• Don’t ‘F’ with the Pizza Guy
• More on the latest Pizzza Hut guy in trouble for defending himself
• Pizza Hut gives driver the pepperoni

Well, Des Moines man replaces pizza job — and his gun:

James Spiers is back to work, but he isn’t delivering pizzas this time.

He’s a route driver, supplying fast food and snack products to gas stations, convenience stores and other businesses, making the rounds in a company van.

And here’s the kicker: Spiers says his boss lets him carry a handgun on the job.

Not the .22-caliber Beretta that got him in trouble with Pizza Hut in March 2008.

“A little larger caliber this time,” he said, slightly understating the matter. “A Ruger LCP .380.”

He needed a new gun of some sort, because the cops still have his other one:

Even though Kenneth Jimmerson was sentenced to prison for 27 years in December, the cops tell Spiers they still might need the gun for evidence.

Again, a pizza, a robbery, a gunshot

Lexington, South Carolina:

The suspect, Raymond Antonio Metze, 17, of 212 Crestridge Drive, Lexington, was booked Sunday at the Lexington County Detention Center on charges of armed robbery and possessing a weapon during the commission of a violent crime. He is in jail under $100,000 bond.

A black BB pistol that resembled a semiautomatic handgun was used in the robbery, a Sheriff’s Department spokesman said…

According to warrants and reports from deputies, shortly before midnight, the 29-year-old delivery man — from Papa John’s on 3937 Platt Springs Road — brought pizza to 236 Crestridge Drive. The home was vacant.

After the delivery man knocked on the front door, a man came from the side of the house with what appeared to be a handgun and demanded cash.

The pizza delivery man gave him a little more than $200.

As the pizza delivery man left, the suspect kept pointing his fake pistol at him. Not knowing it was fake and only fired BBs, the pizza man pulled his handgun. It was real, a 9mm semiautomatic.

He fired one shot, wounding the suspect in his chest.

No doubt some will wonder whether the shooting was truly necessary, as the pizza guy had handed over the cash and was already trying to leave. Murdoc suspects that the delivery driver no doubt felt threatened and that his life was in danger, and the robber’s gun (though it turned out to be fake) justifies that feeling. Still, I wouldn’t be surprised to hear complaints that the pizza guy’s response “wasn’t proportional” or some such.

Last I heard, Papa John’s has a policy against delivery drivers arming themselves.

Thanks for the heads up to Say Uncle, who wrote

Real gun beats fake gun.

Yep. Almost every time.

St Louis:

A manager of a Domino’s Pizza restaurant was shot in the leg after handing over cash to two robbers on Thursday night, police said.

At 11:15 p.m. on Thursday, the manager and another employee of the Domino’s at 1444 N. Kingshighway were loading their vehicle for a delivery when they were approached by two men, police said. One announced a robbery and the manager handed over $700. The gunman then shot the 38-year-old manager.

I thought it’s normally “hand over the cash OR I’ll shoot,” not “hand over the cash AND I’ll shoot.” Cooperating with criminals is not a guarantee of safety.

The store’s location is near a spot where a 14-year-old boy was recently shot and killed at his family’s BBQ stand.

Murdoc’s guess is that if the Domino’s manager had pulled a gun and shot at the robbers, local residents would be concerned that a local businessman was armed. Like in Akron.

A while back I posted on the story of pizza shop owner John Hayes, who shot and killed an armed robber.

Recently a follow-up story ran which includes:

The pizza shop owner defended his life and his cash, but business has since suffered. It’s down 80 percent.

“We’ve slowed down. We lost a lot of our core customers in the neighborhood,” Hayes said.

I noted at the time that a neighborhood resident noted that it was the first time that “something of this nature” had happened in the area, and that he must have meant someone defending themselves against armed robbery, because that very pizza shop had been successfully robbed at least three times in the past two years.

Pizza shop gets robbed three times in two years? No problem.

Pizza shop owner shoots robber on the fourth time? To scary to eat there.

Pathetic.

Uncle sent Murdoc the heads up on a pizza guy story. In this case, it wasn’t a delivery driver held up…it was the store owner in the store:

[John] Hayes, 37, was behind the counter Tuesday night when 20-year-old Patrick Finney, wearing an orange ski mask, walked in and pointed a sawed-off shotgun at his head just before 8 p.m.

A customer, an older woman from the neighborhood, was seated at the counter watching the Cavaliers game while waiting for a stromboli.

”He said, ‘Give me the [expletive] money. This is an [expletive] robbery,” Hayes said.

Hayes cooperated, giving the robber a stack of $10 bills. The robber wanted more and pointed the shotgun within inches of Hayes’ head, he said.

”As soon as I gave him the money, I pulled my gun out from my hip, pointed it and fired four shots,” Hayes said.

The perp managed to get back up and three more shots were fired. He managed to get out of the parlor but collapsed “in a heap on Amelia Avenue.” The gun was a 9mm pistol and it doesn’t say how many of the shots struck their target. A photo with the story shows a hole in the front glass of the store.

The guy’s myspace page is a treat.

I found this bit in the story particularly interesting:

Resident Dave Mariani said he’s owned his house on Burton Avenue just off West Exchange Street since 1973, and this is the first time something of this nature has happened in this part of the neighborhood.

What he apparently means is that this is the first time the robber has been shot in this part of the neighbor hood, because

It was the fourth robbery at the shop since 2007.

It’s not particularly news-worthy when the bad guys get away with it, but it’s a huge media event when the good guys shoot back.

It’s also interesting that the owner initially “played ball” with the robber, giving him “a stack of $10 bills.” Isn’t that what everyone says you’re supposed to do? Cooperate with the criminal? But, shockingly, the criminal wasn’t satisfied with a stack of someone else’s $10 bills, so he demanded more. This is the sort of thing you’ll often see when losers see that people will cave in to their unreasonable demands.

So the owner shot him. That’s the sort of thing you’ll see when reasonable people get fed up with unreasonable bad guys.

Murdoc’s thinking that this might be the last robbery at this shop for a while.