Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, July 28, 1994 TAG: 9407280098
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MATT CHITTUM STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
A man with a gun stole her car, $40 and part of a pizza, and apologized the whole time he was doing it.
"Only in Roanoke would some guy take your car and be nice about it," Birmingham said.
Birmingham, 19, of Roanoke, was delivering for Papa John's Pizza on Brambleton Avenue. She had stepped out of her car on Southall Place at about 12:30 a.m. Wednesday to make a delivery when a man in a sleeveless flannel shirt and baseball cap walked toward her. He motioned that the pizza was for him.
When he came closer, she said, he pulled a handgun from his pocket and told her, "I'm sorry to have to do this, but you're going to drive me to Towers Mall."
Birmingham said the man told her he ordered the pizza from a pay phone at a gas station to lure her to the area.
"He was very apologetic and very passive," Birmingham said. "I mean, we had a conversation on the way." She said she never really felt threatened by the man.
Birmingham said she told the robber he might as well have some pizza. He said he'd never had Papa John's pizza before, so he ate a couple of slices.
Birmingham said at first she didn't realize the man was going to steal her car. But when she asked why they were going to Towers, the man said he wanted to leave her near a phone. "I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to take your car," Birmingham said he told her.
At the mall, the robber allowed Birmingham to get the things she wanted from her car. She said he took the cash in her fannypack, about $40, but left her enough change to make phone calls.
Birmingham called work from a pay phone, and a co-worker called the police.
According to a news release from Roanoke police, the man asked Birmingham how to get to Salem and told her he was getting together some mercenaries to go fight in Mexico. He headed south on Colonial Avenue, the release said.
Birmingham did manage to salvage her tips for the night. As for her car, she said the man told her he would get it back to her.
Given his track record, "he probably will try to do it," she said.
by CNB