Put Down the Slice, Son: Seattle Pizza Crime

There's something about pizza (maybe all that oregano?) that seems to draw the crazies, the bad guys, the ne'er-do-wells. Plenty of good guys are attracted to pizza, too, but they don't make the headlines, at least not as often. Here's a sampling of recent blotter items involving pizza in and around Seattle from the past year.

At first, it's your basic "guy-walks-into-a-bar and demands a free pizza" story. This happens mid-October at DaVinci's Pizza on Aurora Ave. N. The perp says he's picking up for a friend. When he's turned down, he starts throwing trash around the restaurant and stabs an employee with one of the four knives he's carrying. Police find him a few minutes later and book him. Injuries to the employees, fortunately, are not life-threatening.

In Bremerton a couple of weeks later, at the Little Caesars on Callow Ave., a sporting type wearing a Washington State hat and shirt shows up wielding a gun and demands cash. You'd think that pulling a heist would require a bit of discretion and anonymity, not an outfit that's easily remembered. And it's not as if there's no one in the joint at the time; two witnesses tell cops they saw the cashier hand over a wad of cash. Before he leaves with the loot, Mr. Wazzu also helps himself to a pizza. (Side note: why is there no apostrophe in Caesars?)

Papa Murphy's isn't immune, either. Up in Everett, a dude with a hoodie, wearing a plastic glove and carrying a towel, asks for a dollar's worth of change, then demands the rest of the cash in the till. His other hand is in his pocket, maybe concealing a gun. When the cashier hesitates, the perp throws the register to the ground, scoops up the money that's fallen out, and takes off.
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[Photo: Michael L./Yelp]