Local News in Brief : Prisoners Order Pizza, and Restaurant Bites

Inmates at the Los Angeles Police Department’s West Valley Jail, apparently borrowing from a “Hill Street Blues” episode, ordered four large pizzas with everything delivered Friday night, but it was the restaurant that ate the cost.

When Artin Hartounin, a 16-year-old delivery boy for Two-for-One Pizza restaurant, showed up at 19020 Vanowen St. shortly after 10 p.m. with the order, it didn’t take police officers long to trace the call.

“Initially, we thought one of the officers had made the call,” Sgt. Woody Baca said. “We asked who ordered pizza, but nobody did. Then we traced the call-back number given when the order was taken to a pay telephone in the jail used by the inmates.

“The only place this happened before was on ‘Hill Street Blues,’ ” he said. “Somebody said that’s where they got the idea.”

Prisoners, however, are not allowed to have food from outside, and none of the 16 inmates would confess to making the call. Hartounin had to take the pizzas back to the restaurant.

“He even missed out on a tip,” Baca said.

A theft report was filed by the owner of the restaurant, charging that someone tried to defraud him out of $42.22 in pizzas.

In the meantime, all 16 inmates are listed as suspects, Baca said.