Some types of JERSEY MAYHEM!!! never change. Back in summer 1988, on one of my first days delivering pizza in Jersey's Long Branch area, I received some counsel from one of the older drivers. "You'll get a call to make a delivery and when you show up to the house some hot chick's gonna open the door in just her bra and panties and invite you inside," he said. "Don't go inside. There's gonna be some big dude in there waiting to jump out and beat the shit out of you. Trust me. It's a set up." I stared at him, incredulous. "Don't get me wrong," he continued, "I've banged my share of customers-we all have. But you gotta be careful." Now, I found this story very hard to believe. This particular older driver was not exactly known as a ladies' man. In fact, he was famously rumored to have only one testicle. But, as we are reminded by the hairy but ultimately successful undercover sting operation that Long Branch police executed last week, in which a cop posed as a pizza delivery man to capture a roving gang of pizza-delivery-guy attackers, the main gist of his message was something to heed. Pizza delivery is, actually, kind of a dangerous job!
Monday, November 16, 2009
7

Man, when I was delivering pizzas in college, the only out-of-the-ordinary tips I scored were cans of Natty Light and/or bong rips. Beats assault and robbery, I suppose.
Bail was set at $700,000, cash only?
30 minutes or less.
Yeah, I used to know a guy who delivered pizza and he got robbed a lot.
And when I say "know" I mean "rob."
My husband had this job in high school. Said it was his best job ever. Before setting out the the evening, someone behind the counter would tap him a giant to-go cup of Milwaukee's finest. AND there were scantily clad women, all along the delivery route. He never got jumped (robbed or jumped in the way every 17 year old boy wishes he could be jumped), but eventually decided the women wore next to nothing, in lieu of giving an actual tip.
He was fine with that.
when I was recording people telling stories for a story record one was a tale of pizza delivery danger:
http://www.hassletown.thewaltonfirm.org/audio/Pizza.mp3
good stuff.
It's not all so bad. Didn't you ever see Loverboy?
On the other hand, when I was in college, there was a grad student who was murdered when he delivered a pizza to an off campus coke dealer.