Sacramento pizza delivery driver fights back after being held up at gunpoint
NORTH HIGHLANDS – A Sacramento pizza delivery driver is speaking out after she had a gun pointed at her while making a delivery.
The attempted armed robbery happened on Aug. 1 at the River Oaks Apartment complex in North Highlands.
It started with someone ordering pizzas to a phony apartment number and then escalated to being held up at gunpoint. Most people may have just complied, but this delivery driver took a stand and said enough with this type of violence while on the job.
"He asked me to empty my pockets, so I reached into my pocket where I keep my pepper spray and I pepper sprayed him across the eyes," said the pizza delivery driver who wanted to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation.
In a video the delivery driver shared with CBS13, you can hear her trying to talk down two young men at the River Oaks Apartments who had what she said looked like a submachine gun.
"You want the pizza you can have the pizza, but you ain't getting nothing else," the delivery driver said in the video.
Tia Macaree was ducking behind her plants on her second-floor balcony as everything played out below her.
"I was just sitting there the whole time, hoping not to get shot," Macaree said."She's screaming at the boy, he's waving a gun at her and she's saying are you going to kill me over pizza? Are you going to become a murderer over pizza tonight?"
Statewide Director of the Fast-Food Workers Union Maria Maldonado said under California's workplace violence prevention law that went into effect July 1, employers are now required to give their workers training on how to deal with dangers on the job.
"It would be good for workers to know their rights and not be afraid to speak up," Maldonado said. "They are going to continue working. They need their jobs but they need also to be safe."
The delivery driver said her boss blacklisted deliveries to the next-door Madison Apartment Complex after some of her employees were held up at gunpoint there, but this was the first attempted armed robbery of one of their delivery drivers at River Oaks.
"When you sign your contract, you know it's a risk," the delivery driver said.
The Sacramento County Sheriff's Office said no arrests have been made yet from the armed robbery on Aug. 1.
The delivery driver said she has felt overwhelmed by support from her bosses and coworkers, but hopes more change across the industry will come, starting with no cash deliveries at night.
"I think it's very, very sad that they are going to hold her up for a pizza," Macaree said. "They didn't even get the pizza."