Officers Pretend to Be Pizza Delivery Guys in Order to Catch Robbers
Undercover police work sounds like it’d be scary. I think I’ve watched enough TV to understand that walking among gangsters and drug dealers, pretending to be one of them, is hella dangerous.
Impersonating pizza deliverers in order to catch some kids might not be on that same level, but it was still necessary and kind of dangerous.
According to Berkeleyside, police officers acted as delivery boys in order to nab three people linked to an armed robbery in North Berkeley.
The same morning that the robbery occurred, the robbers ordered a pizza using the credit card they had stolen.
They were kids, one of them technically an 18-year-old adult, and they must have been seriously craving pizza, because the robbery took place at 1 am and by 5:13 am, the three were arrested.
It wasn’t too hard to find them. As soon as the police found out that the stolen card was being used, the police called the pizza shop, found out where the order was headed, intercepted the delivery and promptly “delivered” the pizza themselves.
The officers called out to the suspects, “Hey, we got your pizzas.” Major red flag that multiple people are delivering your pizza, unless they ordered like 15 of them.
The suspects came out for their pizza, saw the cops, freaked out and immediately ran back into the house like a scene from a Judd Apatow movie. The officers surrounded the area, called the suspects to come out, and after about 15 to 20 minutes, made the arrests. The officers found the victim’s stolen property and a handgun in the house.
The suspects were officially arrested on suspicion of robbery, violating a court order, possession of stolen property and being armed with a firearm during the commission of a felony.
I just hope the officers tipped the delivery guy they took the pizza from. It’d certainly be rude if they didn’t.
H/T Berkeleyside