Wisconsin Pizza Delivery Driver Helps Save Kidnapped Woman
(CBS Local) – A pizza delivery driver in Wisconsin is being credited with helping free a woman who was kidnapped last week and held at a home against her will.
The driver alerted authorities Thursday after delivering a pizza to a couple in a Sheboygan County home and seeing a woman, with a black eye, mouth the words "help me" and "call the police."
That's just what the driver, identified as 24-year-old Joey Grundl, did.
I gave the guy his pizza and behind him was a woman," Grundl told CBS 58.
"I could see a black eye on her right eye and that's when she pointed to it and mouthed the words to me 'Help me' and shortly thereafter mouthed again to me 'Call the police'. And after the guy gave me the money for the pizza I got in my car and started driving back to the store and that's when I dialed 911."
When officers arrived at the eastern Wisconsin home, the man who paid for the pizza, 65-year-old Dean Hoffman, let them in. He was arrested soon after.
According to the criminal complaint, the unidentified victim told authorities Hoffman forced his way into her home earlier in the day, punched her in the face with a closed fist, tied her up with a power cord and tried to persuade her to get back into a relationship with him.
He then allegedly "took a towel and shoved it into her mouth and forced her to try to scream in order to ensure that nobody would be able to hear her," according to the complaint.
"Sometimes it's best to just pay attention to what's going on," Grundl told CBS 58. "You never know when someone maybe is trying to give you a little hint there."
Hoffman faces several charges in connection with the incident, including kidnapping, false imprisonment, burglary, and strangulation and suffocation.