Posted on 04/16/2005 6:24:38 AM PDT by Mad Dawg
CHARLOTTE, N.C. – A pizza delivery driver is recovering after being robbed and shot Wednesday night at the Winter Woods apartment complex in south Charlotte. Police say a suspect approached the driver, demanded money and shot him in the shoulder.
The Papa John's employee was also armed and fired a shot at the robber in self-defense, but police say carrying a gun might not be the best course of action for delivery drivers.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with Bobby Martin and his family right now,” said Bobby Meroney, director of operations of Papa John’s in Charlotte. “We wish him speedy recovery.”
Bobby Martin, the 41-year-old driver for a Papa John's restaurant on Sharon Road West, remains in fair condition after taking a bullet in the shoulder. Although he missed, Martin also fired a shot at the suspect with a gun he took on the delivery.
While it is not against North Carolina law for him to carry an unconcealed weapon, it is against Papa John's policy.
“We have rules posted in the stores constantly reminding about the security issues out there,” Meroney said.
Gun shop owner Larry Hyatt says the people that make such rules “are not out there delivering the pizzas, they are sitting in the corporate office.” In fact, he says more and more business people are buying handguns, especially those who travel alone or at night.
“The big corporations are afraid of lawsuits so they don't want their employees to have any kind of weapon for self-defense,” Hyatt said.
Police say the best defense for someone in Martin’s situation is no defense at all. Recently, in a similar case, the pizza delivery man involved sensed something was wrong. He never made the delivery; instead he tracked down the police.
“Our officers posed as that delivery person, went to that location and arrested a couple of subjects,” said Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department spokesman Keith Bridges.
While Martin recovers, Papa John's says it is working with police and is also in the midst of an internal investigation.
“We're going to look out for the team member, but anytime an accident happens on the job, it's a shame,” Meroney said.
Papa John's will not say whether Martin will be fired for violating company policy for carrying a weapon on the job.
Police are still looking for the suspect involved in this shooting.
Obviously police think the best course of action is to do nothing and allow the robber to continue using your body for target practice.
I guess they'd rather him lay on the pavement with a chalk outline rather than recovering in a hospital.
And we just can't have that, now can we?
Obviously police think the best course of action is to do nothing and allow the robber to continue using your body for target practice.
Most Police that I know personally will tell you to shoot the SOB, that being docile is not the best course of action.
However, there are others, a minority, who follow the party line, who will tell you not to defend yourself or you'll get hurt.
These people are usually the office poages and upper echelon pukes who wouldn't know a Constutiional Right if one walked up and bit them on the ass.
Keith forgot to mention two days later a massive police sweep in the same area led to the arrest of 2 predicates, an adverb and 3 pronouns.
The police always make lame statements like that. I only wish the pizza boy had gotten off a head shot, so that the scum bag robber could have taken his deserved dirt nap.
If Papa John's fires him they will lose my business. We should all email them and tell them so.
Would it be too obvious to say the police are dead (pardon the pun) wrong on this one?
And what happens when the papers report that the man did not deliver the pizza based on what he "sensed"? Sounds like a civil rights lawsuit waiting to happen.
The store number is (704) 556-7171.
The National Office is in Louisville--their PR guy is David Flanery, 502-261-4753. I couldn't find any email addresses beyond directly posting to them through their website.
One that would involve the deep pockets of the town or city that sent its police officers to 'deliver' the pizza. $$$$$$$$$$$$$
Bump to that. Either take the risk one way or take it the other. Of course, the company prefers to take the risk in a way that would subject the driver to danger, where they may simply claim that it was not their policy that endangered the driver but an intervening illegal act by whatever crook shot `em.
Typical. My respect for Papa John's just dropped a notch. I loved eating there in Korea--I always thought they were the best of the big pizza chains--but it won't happen again unless I hear their policy has changed. It's too bad. Their big cheese donated to Bush (although he did contribute to Ben Chandler, too). But I'm not contributing to any wishy-washies if I can avoid it, and there are local places I can get pizza from in Korea anyway (even if it does have corn or some other asinine Korean mix on it).
Plus Domino's has gotten a lot better, and they're pretty well known to be hardcore conservative donors.
Here in Abilene several weeks ago, two teens 14 & 17? year olds I think, tried to rob a pizza delivery guy. He pulled out a gun and shot both of them. One was seriously wounded, but both will recover. The DA filed charges against both of the would be robbers. He said the only possible charge against the delivery guy might be not having a carry permit,
but no charges have been filed so far.
Both me and my wife have worked as pizza delivery drivers for extra cash. Most stores will refuse to deliver if the driver feels threatened or unsafe. If a driver has been robbed, that area instantly becomes off-limits. If a potential customer complains about lack of delivery service to their neighborhood, they are told that the drivers safety are more important than their pizza. BTW, my wife works for Papa John's. Pizza Hut has similar policies about armed drivers and dangerous areas.
These people are usually the office poages and upper echelon pukes who wouldn't know a Constutiional Right if one walked up and bit them on the ass.
Tin-FOE! Fortunatley our sheriff is STRONGLY pro- 2nd amendment. Somebody advised him that raffling a firearm to raise money for our volunteer programs might have political repercussions.
His reply: Good!
P.S., just asking: what's a poage - I have a notion that it should be pogue, but I don't know what that is either!
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