Local News in Brief : Police Deliver Pizzas to Catch Holdup Suspects
Undercover police officers have begun capturing bandits who beat and rob pizza delivery drivers, authorities said Monday.
Los Angeles Police Sgt. Don Kitchen said officers, posing as delivery drivers because of a rash of holdups of employees of a Domino’s Pizza in San Fernando, have arrested four teen-agers.
Kitchen said the investigation began last month when a Domino’s Pizza in the 100 block of North Maclay Avenue reported that its drivers had been robbed 12 times in three weeks. About half the drivers were beaten.
Los Angeles police, with the assistance of San Fernando authorities, began posing as delivery drivers. On Nov. 22, two youths brandishing lead pipes tried to rob an officer making a delivery to a house in Sylmar, Kitchen said. The youths, 16 and 17 years old, were arrested on suspicion of attempted robbery, authorities said.
Undercover officers arrested two more youths armed with wooden clubs and wearing ski masks early Sunday morning when they tried to rob an undercover officer who had been called to make a delivery to a vacant house in San Fernando, Kitchen said.
“We’ll be using this tactic more often,” Kitchen said.
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