Bates Street Area : Pizza Deliverers New Favorite of Robbers

Robberies of drivers delivering pizzas have “exploded” recently, local police said this week, noting that several have been concentrated in the same neighborhood where a 25-year-old cab driver was fatally shot early Monday.

Sgt. C. T. Martin of the San Diego Police Department said Bates Street in East San Diego has been the focal point in recent months of “a lot of drug and gang activity and is getting to be a real problem.”

Michael Carroll, an employee of Coast Cab, was shot on Bates Street about 1 a.m. Monday after being robbed at gunpoint by an assailant who had asked Carroll to drive him to a liquor store. Carroll was robbed after the passenger was returned to his Bates Street destination and, police said, after he had given the bandit his money.

Martin said Thursday that, of the 30 robberies of pizza-delivery drivers in San Diego this year, several have been on Bates Street or in the 5800 block of University Avenue, a block away. Carroll was shot one block from 58th Street and University.

“We had three in that area just last weekend,” Martin said. “Lately, they’ve just been exploding. The M.O. is always the same. They take the cash, sometimes the pizza and sometimes the vehicle. And, often, they’re armed robberies.”

Robbed on, Near Bates Street

Martin said two of the pizza-delivery robberies occurred in the 5700 block of Bates on Saturday night and one in the 5800 block of University on Friday night. On May 17, one happened in the 5700 block of Bates, which is a dead-end street two blocks long.

“We’ve had about five pizza-delivery robberies this month alone,” Martin said, “and most were in that area or pretty close by. It’s getting real rough over there. These robberies usually involve less than $30, and the victim is usually a young kid trying to make a little spending money, or just trying to put a little away.”

Bruce Schweda, manager of Etna Restaurant and Pizza House in the 4400 block of El Cajon Boulevard, said one of his drivers was robbed on Bates last weekend and, as a result, Schweda now forbids drivers to deliver pizzas at night to East San Diego.

“A guy came up behind him with a gun and just took his money,” Schweda said. “Bates is rough, man. It’s a dead-end street, kind of a dark area. It’s rough, partly because it is a dead-end street. You get in there, and you’re just trapped.”

Over the past few years, robberies of pizza-delivery carriers have increased across the country, with fatalities resulting in Los Angeles, Philadelphia and other cities. Martin said he knew of no such fatalities here but added that pizza-delivery robberies are on the rise in San Diego County, “particularly along our southeast corridor,” and in National City.

“I’ve been the manager here a month and a half, and in that time, we’ve had three,” said Tony Pasquariello, manager of Domino’s Pizza on Plaza Boulevard in National City. “And, throughout its history, the store has had a lot. It’s getting to where a guy will kill you for $10 and a lousy pizza.”

Mitch Wagner, who manages the Domino’s Pizza on El Cajon Boulevard in East San Diego, said three drivers for his outlet had been robbed since January.

“We’ve taken measures to try and stop it,” he said. “Any large order, we call back, $18 or more. We confirm it with the customer. We’re also very selective now about where we go.”

Wagner said he thinks the worst pizza-delivery area in the county is not Bates Street but an apartment complex on Paradise Valley Road in San Diego.

“It’s the edge of Paradise Hills,” he said. “All kinds of people with guns. The Twilight Zone, Vietnam. A real bad place.”

He laughed and said, “Whoever thought pizzas would get to be such a risky business?”