HOUSTON – A pizza shop manager who is new on the job said he’s had to get right down to business keeping his workers safe.
He didn’t want to share his identity but he gave details on three recent attempts by crooks who lured his delivery drivers to homes listed for sale only to rob them when they arrived. The latest attempt was Tuesday outside one home in Copperfield but his driver called when things didn’t look or feel right.
"It was another house that was up for sale," he said. "There was a car sitting out front that was running, and, for lack of a better word, a sketchy character was walking down the street."
KPRC 2 has confirmed at least four of these recent attempts in the Copperfield area -- two of them being successful.
In most of the cases the robbers take down the for sale signs, call in a bogus order, then wait for the delivery person to arrive. The manager we spoke to said he’s no longer allowing his drivers to deliver to first-time customers who don’t answer followup calls to verify orders. That’s just one new precaution.
“We don’t want to send a driver out there and potentially have him robbed,” he said. “Or some standby that didn’t even have anything do with the situation could potentially be in danger either.”
He said the last attempt failed because of an alert driver and the store was able to contact the Harris County Sheriff’s Office, where deputies arrested two suspects.
“I feel good that potentially people who could’ve caused somebody injury are now off the street,” he said. “Hopefully it’ll let my employees feel a little bit more at ease.”
