4 Crazy Pizza-Related Crimes

The Unfortunate Tale of Brian Douglas Wells

Delivering pizza can be dangerous, what with the constant threat of robbers, car accidents, guard dogs, and overweight mothers wearing far too little clothing and asking if you want to “eat your tip.” Of course, this comes with the territory, and by choosing to deliver pizza, you readily accept the possibility that you will experience one or more of these things. Conspicuously absent from the list, however, is “have a bomb strapped to your neck and forced to rob banks before it explodes.”

Such was the unfortunate fate of Brian Douglas Wells, a pizza delivery driver for Mamma Mia Pizza in Erie, Pennsylvania. On August 28th, 2003, Wells was dispatched to a radio tower to deliver some pizzas. Upon his arrival, it was alleged that two individuals placed a bomb around his neck, gave him a shotgun disguised as a cane, and ordered him to rob a bank or the bomb would explode.

Of course, the bomb did explode, but not until after a tense standoff with police. The bomb blew a hole in Welss’ chest, killing him instantly. To many this seems like a random crime perpetrated by a couple of heinous individuals, but later investigations revealed that Wells was actually involved with the crime, which clearly didn’t turn out the way he had hoped.

Intending to use a fake bomb merely as a means of coercion, Wells, who is reported to have planned the robbery, was apparently shocked to learn that the men involved had intended to use a real bomb. After a brief tussle, the men, identified as Kenneth Barnes and William A. Rothstein, strapped the bomb around his neck, which eventually exploded.

Despite this horrifically sad ending, Barnes, along with fellow conspirator Marjorie Diehl-Armstrong, were charged and sentenced to 45 and 30 years in prison, respectively, for their roles in the crime. Rothstein was also named as an accomplice, but died of lymphoma in 2004. Evidently, Diehl-Armstrong needed the money to pay Barnes to kill her father so she could obtain a lucrative inheritance, which is funny given that most of the inheritance had been spent. Eventually, a movie, “30 Minutes or Less,” was made, proving that no subject is off limits when it comes to a comedy starring Aziz Ansari.

(Source)

Pizza Connection Trial

The connection between the Mafia and Italian food is a beautiful and hilarious stereotype, but it proved true in the infamous Pizza Connection Trial of the 1980s.

The case focused on a Mafia plot to distribute heroin and launder the money. The front for the laundering? Why, Al Dente’s pizzeria in Forest Hills, Queens. The resulting trial was, for lack of a better word, epic. Of the 32 members of the Mafia that were indicted, only 22 stood trial. This was because many either didn’t live in the country or were killed or died of natural causes before or during the trial. Many of them were Sicilian born, and thus didn’t speak English.

What would a Mafia trial be without a rat? Although not directly involved with the Pizza Connection plot, Tommaso Buscetta testified against his associates due to his participation in the drug trade. Another rat, Salvatore Controne, testified in exchange for being protected in the Witness Protection Program.

In the end, a number of mob bosses and underlings were convicted, many of which died in prison. Al Dente’s is still open and serving pies, albeit with a different owner. Here’s hoping the new owner has a Sicilian-style pizza on the menu, in honor of the restaurant’s claim to fame.



(Source)

Don’t Play With Your Food: Domino’s Employees Arrested for Being Gross

They may have claimed it was just a harmless prank, but a pair of Domino’s Pizza employees found themselves in serious legal trouble when they filmed themselves doing rather disgusting things with food and putting them on a pizza, presumably one that was baked and sold to a customer.

In the video, Kristy Hammonds and Michael Setzer were seen playing with food, putting food up their noses and putting it on the pizza, and sneezing on the pizza. Despite their claim that they never intended to serve the pizza to a customer, they were fired and subsequently arrested for contaminating food distributed to the public. They faced upwards of a year in jail for their little prank.

Many large companies have dedicated employees searching YouTube for videos that could conceivably cast a negative light on their company, so anyone seeking to make and upload a video of them playing a prank at their place of employment better think twice, lest they get arrested.



(Source)

The Pizza Flyer Bill

Over the past couple of years, a recent trend has been developing, specifically in the town of Kissimmee, Florida, wherein organized crime units would hire people to distribute pizza flyers at hotels with a phone number listed on them. Instead of taking you to a pizza place, the phone number lead to a scam that attempted to get you to input your credit card information. As if this wasn’t bad enough, a lot of the flyer distributors are often told to burglarize the home if the homeowner is gone and the door is unlocked.

To combat this problem, the state passed the Pizza Flyer bill, also known as the Tourist safety Act in July of 2011. The new law will allow law enforcement officials to target these scam artists, increase penalties, and use civil forfeiture to confiscate the fans used to transport the flyer distributors.

The bill is apparently a big deal, though it’s still mind boggling that people will willingly give out their credit card number to an unknown individual.

(Source)
Posted on May 15, 2012 at 9:00 AM