THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, November 30, 1994 TAG: 9411300464
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B01 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JON FRANK, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Long : 143 lines
When a Chanello's pizza delivery driver was shot in the face outside an apartment in the Oakleaf Forest housing community in September, the residents banded together to help police solve the crime.
They were rewarded a month later with a Chanello's-sponsored pizza party. It was the company's way of saying thanks for helping bring about the arrest of Rico Antonio Wilson, 18, of the 3200 block of Lafayette Blvd., and DeShawn James, 18, of Chesapeake.
Both were charged with robbery, malicious wounding and use of a firearm while committing a felony.
Although hundreds of law-abiding residents enjoyed the party, it was the last time Chanello's delivered pizzas to Oakleaf Forest.
The housing community is now considered too dangerous for the company's delivery drivers. So are the other 15 public housing communities in Norfolk. All have been declared off-limits for deliveries.
Chanello's is not alone in responding to what police say is a growing number of attacks on pizza-delivery drivers. Pizza Hut and Domino's, the other major pizza-delivery outlets in Hampton Roads, also avoid some areas.
``We don't go into any of the parks (public housing communities) in Norfolk,'' said a spokesman for Chanello's, which operates 20 pizza delivery outlets in Hampton Roads. ``We want to service everything, but we have to protect our people. When people are shooting people for a $10 pizza, that's just not worth it.''
It's a business's common-sense approach to the crime problem. Pizza-delivery companies say they face potential violence every day because robbers view their drivers as easy prey. Pizza-delivery drivers get assaulted, injured and, sometimes, killed.
In response, pizza-makers are depending less on police protection and more on their own assessments of risk. Many of the largest companies refuse to deliver food to addresses in crime-ridden neighborhoods, even if none of their drivers has been harmed there.
``It is a microcosm of society in general,'' said Rob Doughty, a spokesman for Pizza Hut, the Wichita, Kan.-based chain that operates 69 restaurants and delivery outlets in Hampton Roads.
``We have to weigh the consequences and decide if it is worth putting our people at risk to sell a pizza.''
The people who are being denied service, though, feel cheated out of one of the minor luxuries of American life in the 1990s - making a telephone call and eating pizza in the comfort of home 40 minutes later.
``Don't nobody come out here,'' said 16-year-old Andreka Gibson, a resident of Young Terrace in Norfolk. ``We definitely can't get pizza delivered.''
In some communities, Gibson said, the denial of services extends beyond food delivery.
``Cabs won't come out here,'' she said, ``and I'm surprised the fire trucks and ambulances even come.''
``It is discrimination,'' said William Harris, a 30-year-old resident of Oakleaf Forest. ``Everybody out here is not bad. My neighbors are fair and decent people.''
Pizza Hut would not disclose all its off-limits locations, citing competitive reasons for keeping them secret. But Bill Byrd, a regional Pizza Hut spokesman, said the company avoids all the areas that Domino's refuses to serve.
``Safety is our No. 1 concern,'' said Byrd, noting that only one Pizza Hut driver in the region has ever been hurt.
``We want to sell pizzas to everyone, but there are small pockets throughout the region where we have chosen not to go because of safety.''
Pizza Hut, which operates the largest fast-food delivery business in the world, has attacked the problem scientifically.
The company employs a Pennsylvania company - Cap Index Inc. - to evaluate neighborhoods by comparing their crime rates to the national average.
A map is generated that color-codes all of the neighborhoods Pizza Hut serves. A green neighborhood has a lower-than-average crime rate and is safe for delivery. A yellow neighborhood is within the national average and also is safe. But a red neighborhood has a higher-than-average crime rate and is off-limits for delivery drivers.
Pizza Hut also factors in local police reports and plots violent crimes onto city maps before determining that a location is unsafe, Doughty said. In addition, the company considers the views of its drivers.
``There are some places, apartment complexes and housing projects mostly, that we can't get drivers to go into,'' Doughty explained.
Pizza Hut encourages drivers to take precautions, Byrd said. Sometimes, two drivers in separate cars are sent on one delivery. And drivers are told that they should bring the pizza back to the store if delivery locations look dangerous.
``We ask every driver to make a decision whether to go to that door,'' Byrd said. ``There are never any consequences to a driver whatsoever if he does not deliver.''
Domino's, which pioneered the concept of pizza delivery, also goes to great lengths to protect its drivers, said George Hazzis, whose Tidewater Pizza Inc. operates 19 Domino's delivery outlets in Portsmouth, Chesapeake, Virginia Beach and Norfolk.
The Michigan-based pizza maker, Hazzis said, was the first to introduce security measures such as time-delay safes in its delivery outlets, and driver-training programs emphasizing safety..
Domino's has undertaken a public-awareness campaign, advertizing that its drivers never carry more than $20, and the company restricts delivery to daylight hours in certain areas, Hazzis said.
``Security of our personnel is of the utmost importance to Domino's Pizza,'' Hazzis said.
Domino's, which introduced delivered pizzas to South Hampton Roads in 1975 and is now expanding its delivery menu to include subs and wings, has regional safety directors throughout the U.S. who work with local police in reporting and investigating robberies, assaults and shootings, Hazzis said.
These precautions and others taken by pizza-makers come in response to what police say is a growing problem. Local law enforcement authorities estimate they have investigated nearly 100 robberies and assaults on pizza-delivery drivers in the past three years in Hampton Roads.
Many of the victims were seriously injured or killed.
The Chanello's driver who was shot at Oakleaf Forest, 42-year-old Dale Winkler, is recovering from his injuries after a long hospital stay.
In August, police arrested an 18-year-old Norfolk man, Jonton V. Hunt, and charged him with shooting a pizza-delivery driver in the face in the South Norfolk section of Chesapeake. The driver, Ronald Schwartztrauber, survived.
In February in Suffolk, a 22-year-old man and a 14-year-old boy ordered pizza twice and were charged with robbing the delivery drivers at gunpoint.
In late January on the Eastern Shore, a 23-year-old woman was shot and killed on a deserted road during a pizza delivery.
The most-publicized case was in Newport News on Jan. 11, when police officer Steven R. Rutherford was murdered while posing as a pizza-delivery driver during an ill-planned undercover operation aimed at ending a series of robberies in the Denbigh area.
Newport News teenager Nephus S. Stanley pleaded guilty to the capital murder and robbery of Rutherford. The 18-year-old received life sentences on the murder and robbery charges and eight years on firearms charges. The plea agreement allowed Stanley to avoid a possible death sentence.
Three other teenagers also were convicted for roles in the murder and robbery of Rutherford.
The fatal pizza-delivery sting operation led to several investigations of police procedures and a shakeup of the Newport News Police Department that included the resignation of Chief Jay A. Carey Jr. ILLUSTRATION: Staff color photo by BETH BERGMAN
Andreka Gibson, left, with Tamarra Wilson, residents of Young
Terrace in Norfolk
Staff color map
NEIGHBORHOODS WHERE PIZZA COMPANIES WON'T DELIVER
For copy of map, see microfilm
by CNB