A number of robberies or attempted robberies involving local pizza shops or delivery drivers have occurred in Grand Cayman during the past two years, according to reports reviewed by the Caymanian Compass.
Friday night’s heist outside a home in the Prospect area was just the latest in a string of incidents – all of which concerned relatively minor sums of money, or no money at all – involving pizza shops or their employees. A few have ended in pizza drivers being injured.
According to the Royal Cayman Islands Police Service, at about 9.50pm Friday, a 56-year-old male driver from a local pizza company was attempting to make a delivery to a home on Victory Avenue in George Town.
As the driver approached the residence on foot he was attacked by a group of males. The victim was struck to the back of the head and fell to the ground.
Police said the suspects stole a wallet and other personal items belonging to the victim.
Police were called by residents and made a search of the area. No arrests had been reported by press time.
The victim was treated at the scene by a medic unit and transported to George Town Hospital.
Driver shot with flare
In early June of last year, the RCIPS responded to an incident where a pizza delivery man had been shot in the stomach with a flare gun.
The man, 40, was treated in hospital for slight injuries. The June incident again occurred in the Prospect area.
Police said the delivery man was backing his car out of the driveway of a home on Orange Drive in Prospect when the man with the flare gun approached him.
The suspect fired the flare into the car, hitting the pizza man in the stomach, police said. The delivery man was bruised by the shot, police said.
Gino’s Pizzeria
Armed robbers struck Gino’s Pizzeria along the Seven Mile Beach corridor in January 2011 on a Monday night, according to RCIPS detectives.
Police said two masked men armed with handguns entered, threatening staff and customers before making off with a sum of cash from the register.
The suspects were spotted running off toward the Lone Star bar.
No shots were fired and no one was injured in the incident.
Domino’s hit twice
Persistence paid off for robbery suspects in late September 2010, who attempted to hit the Domino’s Pizza on Mary Street on a Wednesday night but were foiled by the business’s security system.
The very next night they were back, around 6.20pm.
According to witness reports, the robbers got away with some cash after threatening store workers.
In both incidents, the men were believed to have been carrying firearms.
Driver set up
A group of four teenagers set their sights on some free pizzas and soft drinks in July 2010, allegedly threatening a Gino’s Pizza delivery man with a screwdriver in West Bay after calling and ordering the food earlier in the evening.
According to court records, the teens gave varying accounts of the incident. It amounted to calling Gino’s Pizzeria and ordering the food and drink to be delivered to a particular address. When the delivery man arrived, one of the girls met him outside to claim the order. She told him the money was coming, but then everyone ran from the scene. Investigations later indicated that nobody at the given address had placed any order.
Justice Marva McDonald-Bishop imposed individualised non-custodial sentences for the two boys and two girls after they pleaded guilty and she heard reports from probation officers.
Teens hit Savannah Domino’s
Another group of youngsters infamously hit the Domino’s Pizza store in Savannah in broad daylight in early June 2010.
The Domino’s Pizza was robbed just before 2pm by three machete-wielding teenage girls, according to witnesses.
The Royal Cayman Islands Police Service confirmed three robbery suspects came in and demanded money. Officers said the teens threatened the store staff and made off with cash and some sodas.
The three suspects left the store shortly afterward, ran down Pedro Castle Road and got into a white Rav-4, police said. No one was injured in the hold-up. All were eventually arrested and were brought before the court.
Savannah hit again
In March 2010, the Pizza Hut in Savannah was targeted by robbery suspects carrying what appeared to be a handgun and a machete. RCIPS officers said the robbers allegedly threatened staff with the weapons and demanded cash. They then made off from the scene with an undisclosed amount of money and were last seen running toward the rear of the building.
No shots were fired and no one was injured in the incident.
Bodden Town driver attacked
A driver from a local pizza company was the victim of an attempted robbery in December 2009 as he tried to make a delivery to a home on Shirley Towbis Lane in Bodden Town.
The RCIPS said the pizza man was unable to find the address and asked two men, standing nearby, for directions.
The men directed the driver to a house in the lane. When he got there he was informed by the resident that no one in the house had placed an order.
Police said as the delivery man was travelling back out of the lane the same two men stepped out in front of the car. One of them produced a knife and demanded cash.
The delivery driver immediately drove off and reported the matter to police. He was not injured and no money was taken.
Friday night’s heist outside a home in the Prospect area was just the latest in a string of incidents … involving pizza shops or their employees.
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In this country, Yes.
In Sicily, No!
It seems like any business activity in the small or local business community is now a dangerous activity and that is as disgraceful and despicable a statement on the present state of the Cayman Islands that can be made.
A country in which the less fortunate and vulnerable have no protection from society’s predators is truly in the category of countries that are representative of the worst elements of human nature and as much as it pains me to say this, my original home country, the Cayman Islands is fast slipping into that category.
Another sinister element that is evident here is that these attacks might not necessarily be about money at all, as it is well documented that there is very little to be gotten from robbing pizza delivery people.
This element is a highly charged political time bomb and that is the fact that most pizza delivery workers in Cayman are work-permit foreign nationals from countries where certain elements in Cayman’s disaffected and disenfranchised society might see opportunities for pure spiteful, vindictive revenge for perceived wrongs being done against them…and targeting these innocent, hard-working people simply because they can.
If this is the case, hope is truly draining away from the society of the Cayman Islands.
Only Fiery can turn any headline into an expat bashing, dey tuk r jawbs, diatribe. See southpark’s goobacks, to understand that.
Fiery, Give it a rest.
Perhaps they are robbing pizza people, because everyone is unarmed. And the only people with guns are the criminals.
Big Berd
You have a real blind spot…you’re the one that needs to get over it, mate.
Nowhere in this response have I even hinted at bashing expatriates, or anyone else.
I’m turning no headline into anything else but I’ve pointed out a potential reason for these robberies that you do not wish to acknowledge.
Maybe you can come up a better one yourself, given the fact that money cannot be the ulterior motive for robbing a pizza delivery person, regardless of race or nationality, who has very little on them anyway.
BTW, this very sentiment was expressed on another forum by a poster, on this incident.
You are the one disillusioning yourself about the social and economic situation in Cayman and the feelings and sentiments of some of the people who live there.
Big Berd…
BTW, are you suggesting arming the pizza delivery drivers with their own Smith Wessons, Colts and Glocks as well, then ?
My oh my, Cayman has really gone to the dogs now, if you are !
It would be interesting to know if robber grabs a slice of pizza before fleeing..
Arm the drivers. Why not? Betcha they won’t get robbed again.
PS. there are alot of stupid robbery’s and robbers. I mean, one guy shot and robbed an old lady for her purse, just not too long ago.
And we all know how old ladies carry around thousands of dollars in those purses. That’s why they are all bedazzled and sequined.
Pizza delivery should be a Cayman only job!
Delivery dudes would be robbed after every delivery, and that would be the end of the pizza delivery services on Cayman.
Let the down-votes begin…