Dangerous delivery
Adam Gorka put the pizza down and called the cell phone again. No one answered.
"This is one of our better problems," said Gorka, 22, a delivery driver for Italian Village Pizza in Squirrel Hill.
Some of the worst problems: a dark house, no one answering the door, a running car outside.
"It's nothing concrete," Gorka said about what makes his hair stand on end during a delivery. "If it looks shady, then basically anything that's not right feels a little weird. I don't like knocking for a long time."
Life as a pizza delivery driver can be dangerous. It's an occupation that requires workers to carry large amounts of cash, drive around in bad areas of town and knock on strangers' doors.
And lurking in the back of many food delivery drivers minds' is the knowledge that a routine run can end in tragedy.
Last Monday, Vocelli's Pizza driver Christopher Williams, 36, of Swissvale, was shot at 6 p.m. after delivering a pizza to a house near the corner of Camp and Second avenues in Braddock. He died at 11 p.m., and police suspect robbery as the motive for the shooting.
It was the first time that a Vocelli's employee had been shot, said company spokeswoman Dorothy Lyons, but it wasn't the first time a delivery man had been robbed.
"We've obviously had robberies, I think every pizza place has," Lyons said. "It's kind of hard not to."
Just last night, police say an armed robber stormed into the Vocelli's Pizza shop on Route 48 in Monroeville. No one was injured, and no arrests have been made.
A couple of months ago, a man tried to rob Chubby's Pizza & Hoagies in the North Side, said employee Kevin Coleman, 33, of Avalon. But the cashier panicked and ran away, leaving the would-be robber "dumbfounded," and he left, Coleman said.
When last week's shooting was first reported, no one knew where the driver worked, so Chubby's Pizza was getting frantic calls from mothers concerned about the safety of their kids, Coleman said.
"Our one driver's mom called begging him to quit," he said.
No one quit after last week's fatal shooting, but everyone's being a little more cautious, Coleman said.
Giacomo Bruno, a manager at Larry & Carol's Pizza in South Oakland, said the eatery has had at least a couple of robberies in the past two years. One driver was held up with a knife, and another had a gun pointed at him, Bruno said.
It doesn't make any sense, Bruno said, because these drivers can have as little as $5 or $10 with them -- yet someone's willing to take their lives for spare change.
"I think it's ridiculous," he said.
Pizza delivery can be a scary job, said Jim Okain, a Larry & Carol's driver.
"One guy tried to hit me with a bat," said Okain, 42, of Allentown. "You put your life in your hands when you go out late at night."
To help keep drivers safe, Larry & Carol's won't deliver to certain places, Bruno said, declining to give specifics because he didn't want people to get offended and complain.
It isn't rare to declare some neighborhoods off-limits for delivery. In the summer of 2004, there was a rash of pizza delivery man robberies in the North Side, at least 10 in July, according to a statement by police Lt. Kevin Kraus at the time.
One of the robberies ended in the fatal shooting of Frank Christopher, a delivery man for Lillen's Pizza and Restaurant in the North Side. During that summer, some places stopped delivering to the North Side and South Side in an effort to keep their delivery men safe.
Pizza Perfecta, located on the boundary of Shadyside and East Liberty, won't deliver to Penn Circle, just two blocks away, because it's too dangerous, said Mehmet Kaplan, the manager at Pizza Perfecta in Shadyside.
When Kaplan heard that a Vocelli's Pizza driver had been shot early last week, he was saddened -- but not surprised. Kaplan said every three or four months he hears about another delivery driver in the city getting robbed.
"That's the pizza business," he said. "I believe it's not safe anymore."
Attacks on pizza delivery men
Jan. 16, 2006 -- Christopher Williams, 36, of Swissvale, was shot at about 6 p.m. after delivering a pizza to a house near the corner of Camp and Second avenues in Braddock. He died at 11 p.m. Police believe robbery was the motive for the shooting.
Jan. 2, 2006 -- A Grandy's Pizza delivery man was robbed of $10 cash and his pizza by a gun-toting person as he was making a delivery in Redstone, Fayette County.
Oct. 27, 2005 -- Five men ganged up on a delivery man from Castle Shannon as he was making a delivery in the West End. The man managed to wrestle away his attackers' pellet gun, and they fled the scene, leaving the delivery man with minor cuts and abrasions.
Sept. 27, 2005 -- A Domino's pizza delivery man was robbed by three men in Dunbar. The men waved the delivery man down, pulled out a handgun and then proceeded to take two pizzas and the delivery man's money.
Jan. 16, 2005 -- Five masked teenagers performed an armed robbery of a delivery man in Tarentum. They stole the man's car keys, money, cell phone and pizza.
Nov. 27, 2004 -- Two men wielding short-barreled shotguns robbed a pizza deliveryman of $70, a pizza and two hoagies in Knoxville.
July 28, 2004 -- A pizza delivery man, Frank Christopher, was shot and killed and his wife was critically injured during a delivery on the North Side.
Source: Tribune-Review archives
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Reward offered
Vocelli's Pizza has offered a $2,000 award to anyone who has information that will lead to the arrest and conviction of Christopher Williams' shooter. Call Allegheny County Police at 412-473-3000.
Christopher Williams Memorial Fund
Vocelli's Pizza has established a fund to benefit the children and family of Christopher Williams.
Donations may be made at any National City Bank branch.
Checks and money orders can be mailed to:
The Christopher Williams Memorial Fund Vocelli's PizzaAttention: Dorothy Lyons, Suite A-2022101 Greentree RoadPittsburgh, PA 15220
