There’s an old saying that pizza is like sex. When it’s good, it’s really, really good. And when it’s bad, it’s still pretty good. One of the world’s most popular foods, approximately three billion fresh and one billion frozen pizzas are sold in the US every year, more than 12 pies per person. Below are ten strange tales about pizza, from maggots and bombs to war criminals and gremlins.

10Contaminants

Being one of the most popular food items in the world, you’d think the government would keep a careful eye on the pizza trade. Except that if you ever saw a list of the contamination levels the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) found acceptable, you might go on a hunger strike. Tomato paste and pizza sauce can be pretty funky, with an allowance of 30 fly eggs per 100 grams, or 15 or more fly eggs and one or more maggots per 100 grams. When you consider the crust and toppings, you’ll most certainly be tasting mold, mildew, insect fragments, aphids, rodent hair, and what the FDA politely calls “mammalian excreta”.

9The Moon

As mentioned in a previous list, Pizza Hut is no stranger to wild marketing stunts. In 1998, they had the idea to burn their logo into the surface of the moon with high-powered lasers. Luckily, common sense prevailed. Upon consulting experts, they learned that the necessary technology was still some years off. Moreover, for earthlings to be able to see the logo with the naked eye, it would have had to be the size of Texas. In the ensuing years, Pizza Hut has made several deals with the cash-strapped Russian space program, including emblazoning their logo on a rocket and delivering a pizza to the International Space Station.

8Nguyen Ngoc Loan

On February 1, 1968, perhaps the most enduring image of the Vietnam conflict was captured when photographer Eddie Adams snapped a shot of South Vietnamese national police commander Nguyen Ngoc Loan executing an unidentified Viet Cong prisoner on the streets of Saigon. The photo (which would later go on to earn Adams the Pulitzer in 1969) is an unflinching study on the horrors of war—the bullet from Loan’s pistol can actually be seen exiting the man’s skull. While the Vietnam War was hardly popular, this incident in particular helped fuel antiwar sentiments. Three months after the incident, Loan was wounded in action (he would eventually lose his right leg). Originally transported to Australia, he was so reviled there that he was moved to the US. Although there was talk of deporting Nguyen back to South Vietnam as a war criminal, he and his family were allowed to stay in the US.

After the war, he opened up a pizzeria in a Virginia suburb of Washington, D.C. He operated the restaurant, called “Les Trois Continents” for some 15 years, until he was identified. Business fell off, and Loan reportedly found threatening graffiti in the bathroom. He was forced out of business in 1991. Loan died of cancer on July 14, 1998, aged 67.

7Bulletproof

In 1969, former Marine Richard Davis was delivering pizzas in Detroit when he was held up. In the ensuing shootout, he wounded two of his attackers, but he was shot twice. While recovering, Davis came up with the idea for a bulletproof vest. Bullet-resistant vests have been in use at least since the 1500s, but up until about 45 years ago, they were bulky and ineffective, composed of heavy sheets of metal. Davis sought to create a vest that could be concealed beneath clothing. He designed a vest made from nylon and called his body armor Second Chance. Davis so believed in his product that he marketed it by bringing his vests to individual police stations, putting one on, and allowing an officer to shoot him in the chest with a sidearm. By the mid ’70s, the nylon was replaced with Kevlar, a synthetic fiber originally developed for use in tires. It is estimated that bulletproof vests have saved the lives of over 2,000 police officers in the United States alone.

6Danger

Richard Davis survived his brush with muggers because he was an armed ex-Marine. Other drivers aren’t nearly as fortunate. Although it might seem like an innocuous profession, often performed by teenagers, delivering pizza can be extremely dangerous. Robberies and beatings occur on a weekly basis. Drivers are often lured with fake orders and addresses into places where they can be attacked. In the most extreme cases, drivers have even been raped and murdered. Worse still, the major pizza chains do not allow their drivers to carry concealed weapons. In 2004, when a Pizza Hut driver shot and killed a robber while on the job, he was fired.

530 Minutes or Less

Domino’s Pizza got its start in University of Michigan college town Ann Arbor in 1960. Today, this multi-billion-dollar company is controlled by the controversial Bain Capital (co-founded by ex-US Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney). Domino’s has largely stuck to more orthodox advertising strategies than its competitor Pizza Hut. In fact, the company’s greatest claim to fame was their guarantee to deliver in 30 minutes or less, or the pizza would be free.

Unfortunately, the policy put them in some pretty damning legal crosshairs when their drivers got into accidents. Lawsuits alleged that the drivers were forced to drive recklessly to meet their deadlines. In 1992, Domino’s paid $2.8 million to the family of an Illinois woman whose van was struck by a vehicle delivering pizza. But then in 1993, a court awarded $78,750,000 to a Missouri woman stemming from injuries she’d received in a 1989 crash. They settled out of court for a sum believed to have been approximately $15 million, but the policy was scrapped.

4The Noid

As advertising icons go, Domino’s Noid was particularly unappealing—a monosyllabic gremlin-like character in a red rabbit suit meant to manifest the difficulties in delivering a pizza in the 30-minute deadline. The Noid would do anything in his power to make the driver late, including shooting the pizzas with a gun that turned them ice cold. Much like the Trix rabbit, the Noid was constantly foiled. The gimmick was popular enough to roll it into its own video games for computers and the Nintendo.

The story of the Noid took a truly bizarre turn on January 30, 1989, when a deranged customer named Kenneth Lamar Noid burst into a Domino’s in Atlanta, Georgia, taking a pair of employees hostage. Kenneth Noid actually believed the ads were an attack on him. The siege lasted five hours, with Noid making outlandish demands for $100,000 and a getaway car, among other things. He forced the employees to make him pizza during the ordeal. After they escaped, Noid turned himself over to police. He was charged with a laundry list of felonies, but he was found not guilty by reason of insanity.

3Philip Workman

While binging on cocaine, Workman robbed a Wendy’s. An employee triggered a silent alarm, and Workman fled when the police arrived. What happened next remains contested to this day. Workman alleged that he fled, but when the officers caught up with him, he attempted to relinquish his firearm, but it accidentally discharged when they hit him with a flashlight. The police returned fire, wounding Workman.

In the melee, Lieutenant Ronald Oliver was killed. The trial, which many regard as a sham, eventually condemned Workman to death. There was some evidence that Lt. Oliver died from friendly fire, and Workman was briefly granted a stay of execution, but a judge ruled that the evidence did not warrant an entire new trial.

Perhaps as some kind of last-minute act of martyrdom, Workman requested that a vegetarian pizza be delivered to any homeless person living near the prison in lieu of his last meal. His request was denied. When the story went public, there was an outpouring of support for the cause, and hundreds of pizzas were delivered to homeless shelters throughout the country.

2OJ Simpson

In America, the day of the year when the most pizzas are sold is Superbowl Sunday. But remarkably enough, some other odd events have caused spikes and drops in pizza sales. One such phenomenon was the OJ Simpson saga; on June 17, 1994, the nation was glued to their television sets, watching as the former football hero fled from police with friend Al Cowlings in a low-speed chase. Domino’s reported a huge increase in sales as the white Bronco crept down the highway.

Several months later, the pizza chain would notice another bizarre trend when sales skyrocketed in the moments leading up to the verdict in the case. According to company spokesman Tim McIntyre, things slowed down considerably a little after noon, when the decision was finally read out. McIntyre said “We could barely believe it, but not a single pizza was ordered in the United States for five minutes between 1 o’clock and 1:05.”

1The Pizza Bomber

The case of the pizza bomber is one of the most bizarre crimes in American history. On August 28, 2003, pizza delivery man Brian Wells burst into a bank in Erie, Pennsylvania. He was armed with a shotgun and had a bomb attached to his neck. Wells requested $250,000, but he received only $8,702 and was intercepted by the police in the parking lot. From there, he proceeded to tell a weird story—that he was delivering pizza when some men forced him to put on the bomb. Unless he pulled off the robbery for them, it would explode and kill him. While negotiating with the police, and minutes before the bomb squad arrived to disarm the device, it detonated, killing Wells.

The case remained a mystery for years, but was solved in 2007, when several people were indicted for the conspiracy. It is believed that Wells was in on it the entire time, but did not know that a live bomb was going to be used. When he found out the bomb was real, his co-conspirators forced him to strap it on at gunpoint. The money from the robbery was to be used to hire a hitman for prostitute Marjorie Diehl-Armstrong, who wished to kill her father, whom she believed to be wealthy. Diehl-Armstrong was sentenced to life plus 30 years, and another another man involved in the plot, Kenneth Barnes, received 45 years.

The story would go on to be used as the plot point in several television shows, as well as the basis for the largely forgettable comedy 30 Minutes or Less. In his review of the film, critic Roger Ebert said “Moral of the story: If you occupy the demographic that this film is aimed at, Hollywood doesn’t have a very high opinion of you.”

Mike Devlin is an aspiring novelist.

Although it was a flourishing metropolis in the 1700s and 1800s, Naples, Italy, then a kingdom in its own right, was home to multitudes of the poor, many of whom lived in one-room dwellings and were often on the move. In need of cheap, quickly consumed food, they relied on flatbread garnished with toppings of cheese, tomatoes, oil, anchovies, and garlic. Immigrants to the United States brought their staple food with them, and pizza became a sensation in their new country, with the first pizzeria in the US opening for business in Manhattan in 1905.^[1]

Pizza is now a favorite across the planet, though how it’s made varies greatly place to place. As these ten tantalizing facts show, the dish is subject to innovation, research, study, and artistic interpretation. Even animals scrounge for, or steal, the Neapolitan taste sensation.

10 Robot Pizza Employees

Zume Pizza employs both humans and robots. Human employees help prepare the food, develop recipes, conduct taste tests, and enhance the product’s quality based on customer input. The robot workers “perform highly competitive tasks like squirting and spreading tomato sauce and placing pizzas in ovens.”

Located in Mountain View, California, the company, headed by CEO Julia Collins, has set its goal at serving the entire San Francisco Bay Area by the end of 2018.^[2]

9 Pizza Pizza Box

After devouring the pies made by Vinnie’s Pizzeria in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, customers can eat the boxes in which the pizzas were delivered. Inspired by the sight of empty pizza boxes in Brooklyn trash cans, co-owner Sean Berthiaume decided to make edible containers made out of pizza. During a lull in the pizzeria’s business, Berthiaume experimented with the idea.^[3]

For $40, customers can have the pizza-within-a-pizza box delivered to their homes or businesses. The pizza and its container are wrapped in foil and delivered in a pizza bag. (No, the bag isn’t made of pizza.)

“I like to experiment,” Berthiaume admitted. Last year, one of his experiments produced a pizza topped with smaller slices of pizza.

8 Mathematical Pies And Slices

Mathematician Eugenia Cheng knows a thing or two about pizza. In 2013, she devised a formula by which to determine the ideal size for a pie. According to Cheng, the determining factor is the crust. In inventing her formula, Cheng proceeded on the basis that smaller slices have more toppings, so they taste better than larger slices with fewer toppings, and the center of the pie is thicker with toppings than the edges. As far as taste goes, thinner crusts are better than thicker crusts, because the latter decreases the bread-toppings ratio and could become soggy.

PizzaExpress, a UK chain, commissioned Cheng’s project in order to ascertain why its customers preferred 36-centimeter (14 in) pies to 28-centimeter (11 in) pies. Based on Cheng’s findings, which matched customers’ tendencies to favor crispier crusts and balanced toppings, PizzaExpress added 15 grams of dough to its recipe.

In other research involving the investigation of a pattern of equal-size tiles, Joel Haddley and Stephen Worsley of the University of Liverpool found “a way to slice curvy pieces with nearly an infinite number of sides (as long as it’s an odd number of sides) and then further divide those slices in half.” They came up with a more ostentatious way of achieving the same result, cutting “each slice [into] more complex shapes by creating wedges in the sides.”^[4]

7 Self-Driving Pizza Delivery Vehicle

Pizzerias are going high-tech in other ways, too. Domino’s Pizza and its partner, Ford Motor Company, have set themselves the goal of delivering pizzas involving “a simulated autonomous vehicle experience” featuring a Ford Fusion hybrid. Ann Arbor City Council member Sumi Kailasapathy happened to see the driverless delivery vehicle during a test drive, and she asked the research team whether the vehicle could detect and stop for a pedestrian waiting on a curb to cross the street at a crosswalk at which there’s neither a signal nor any other people already in the crosswalk.

According to the engineers, the vehicle could detect Rectangular Rapid Flashing Beacons, the signals activated by pedestrians at crosswalks equipped with them, and stop for them to cross, but they hadn’t heard of the type of crosswalks mentioned by Kailasapathy. In a follow-up e-mail, Alan Hale, a Ford spokesman, assured the city council that the vehicles could, in fact, detect pedestrians waiting to cross a street, whether the crosswalk was equipped with a signal or not, and would stop to allow them to cross the street. “When a vehicle is approaching a crosswalk, it knows it’s approaching a crosswalk, so it has specific rules to look for people in the area of the crosswalk,” he assured Kailasapathy and the other council members.

The driverless delivery vehicles would also be equipped with such other detection capabilities as algorithms that can predict pedestrian behavior, radar and laser sensors, cameras covering 360 degrees, and 200-meter (660 ft) depth perception. The vehicles would also operate according to 3-D models of their environments that would include locations of roads, sidewalks, and buildings as well as such supplemental data as laws, road rules, crosswalks, traffic signals and signs, and other road markings.

Ford hopes to have driverless vehicles on the road by 2021, driving people to their destinations and delivering groceries, packages, and, of course, pizza.^[5]

6 Subconscious Menu

For customers who have trouble deciding what they want on their pizzas, Pizza Hut may have come up with the answer. A “subconscious menu” powered by Tobii Technology, a Swedish company, tracks customers’ eye movements as they check out various pizza toppings shown on the screen and then suggests a pie from among the 4,896 pizza combinations available. The software took six months to develop and was successful 98 percent of the time, according to results of tests that took place in the United Kingdom.

If the subconscious menu proves popular among UK customers, Pizza Hut may introduce it to its American patrons.^[6]

5 Floating Pizzeria

Pizza Pi is more than home to Sasha and Tara Bouis. Their 11-meter (37 ft) boat, built of quarter-inch-thick aluminum plate, is also a floating pizzeria supplying pizzas throughout the Virgin Islands. Sasha, who formerly pursued a Wall Street career, and his wife Tara, who taught elementary special education in Indiana and SCUBA lessons during summers in the Caribbean, gave up their respective careers to ply the tropical waves while supplying their gluten-free, “made-from-scratch” pizza, with “slow-fermentation New York style crust” to local residents and vacationing tourists.

Tara designed, renovated, and built the boat herself. Besides the wind in her sails, the boat is powered by a Perkins 4.236 engine. A menu hangs down its side, listing Plain Jane, Mad Shroom, and Sweet Home pizzas, among other fare, and their respective prices, as well as pies made to order. Although the boat never docks, there’s a window through which transactions can occur between Pizza Pi and customers’ boats, and the couple delivers within the confines of Christmas Cove.^[7]

Hunger inspired the idea for their business. “We were sitting on a boat right here in Christmas Cove,” Sasha recalled, “watching the sunset, and I got hungry.” The presence of tourists suggested that a “pizza boat” could do well, Tara said, so she got to work renovating an old boat to her specifications, while Sasha worked on the engine. Termites helped by consuming the “entire interior” of the boat, leaving Tara with a “perfect blank slate.” To learn about building the boat and running a restaurant, they watched “tons of YouTubes,” Tara said.

On a busy day, the couple sell as many as 70 pies as well as alcoholic beverages and desserts. To toss the pizza dough in the cramped galley, Tara has to kneel. Their 22-month-old daughter, Fiona, acts as their public relations agent, chatting with the crowd, who calls her “Pizza Baby” while chowing down on the family’s product.

4 Animal Pizza Lovers

Included among devotees of pizza are some rather furry aficionados. One, dubbed “Pizza Rat” by New Yorkers, scavenges the city’s subway stations, collecting discarded pizza slices. Possession doesn’t necessarily secure ownership, though, and Pizza Rat sometimes has to fend off other rodents intent on stealing his slice of the pie. A brawl between Pizza Rat and rivals, captured by a subway rider, shows Pizza Rat dragging a slice of pizza downstairs and into a fenced-off area, where he’s ambushed by two other rats. A tug of war ensues between the hungry rodents. This time, it appears Pizza Rat loses the contest.^[8]

“Pizza Squirrel” is another rodent that enjoys pizza. A Chicagoan, Pizza Squirrel forages among the garbage of the city’s Ukranian Village for his slices, which he enjoys perched on the branch of a neighborhood tree. Andrew Goodman, the Chicago resident who snapped the rodent’s picture, said, “It was exactly like the pizza rat, except he was hopping.” The photo made its rounds on the Internet after Andrew’s friend, Melissa McEwan, posted it on Twitter.

Another animal who enjoys pizza stole, rather than scavenged, his meal. The sly fox, noting an unattended parked van with its passenger-side door open, leaped into the front of the vehicle, snatched a slice of pizza, and hastened off with his loot, thereby earning the nickname “Pizza Fox.”

3 Pizza Farm

When Naomi Paley and Rachel Kraynick, regional farm business management specialist with the Saskatchewan Ministry of Agriculture in Yorkton, agreed to establish their pizza farm, they worked with with several industry groups, Kraynick said. The farm is circular in shape, its field divided into ten wedges, each of which is dedicated to the cultivation of a different ingredient for pizza toppings. Plots are dedicated to onions, basil and oregano, tomatoes, peppers, garlic, and other pizza ingredients, Paley said, including the cheese produced from cows’ milk (represented in the farm’s “pie” by a “slice” of pasture) and the ham produced from hogs occupying another “slice” of pasture.

Third- and fourth-grade students, who’ve already learned about soils and plants, visit the farm for hands-on instruction about “the importance of technology to production,” the nutrients plants need, the use of chemicals in agriculture, and environmental awareness. There are worries about the use of herbicides, chemicals, and fertilizers, Paley said, but the farm’s “side-by-side slices will show how such things improve crop health and production.” The pizza farm also provides work for Whitespruce residents who’ve been convicted of crimes, the sentences for which include community service. During the summer, they water and weed the slices of the pizza farm’s pie.^[9]

2 Pizza Art Exhibit

Oto Gillen made his pizza (pictured above) from UV glass, mahogany, and screws, serving up his pie on a mat board, while John Freeman and Justin Lowe used a single ingredient: papier-mache, which, in French, appropriately enough, means “chewed paper.”

Gillen, Freeman, and Lowe are among the other artists who contributed works to PIZZA TIME!, the first show of Manhattan’s Marlborough Broome Street Gallery, which featured over 25 works of pizza-inspired art. Curator Vera Neykov described pizza as a “metaphor for community.” A food that’s “not too fussy,” it unites communities, she said.

John Riepenhoff’s conceptual piece, Physical Pizza Networking Theory, was a 97-centimeter (38 in) pie that was itself topped by smaller pizzas. An interactive exhibit, Riepenhoff’s work, cooked by a local pizzeria, was consumed on opening night by the gallery’s visitors. The artist described the pizza as a “collage [that] address[es] the ontology of the social as material in art.” Other works on exhibit include Michelle Devereux’s Caveman on Pizza and Dude on Pizza #6 ; Andrew Kuo’s Slice 8/23/13 and Piece/Peace, which depicted slices “in geometric shards and colorful smears”; and Will Boone’s Brothers Pizza, which shows the eerie effect achieved by photocopying a pizza.^[10]

1 Gigantic Pizza

The Dirt Road Cookers, a group of eight caterers located in San Antonio, Texas, joined forces to create the world’s largest pizza. The result was a 4.3-square-meter (46.6 ft²), 45-kilogram (100 lb) pie with a 235-centimeter (92.5 in) diameter. Head chef Kurt Oefinger said that baking the pie was truly a team effort. He supervised. Another team member tended the fire. Two others prepared the toppings. Another pair worked on the pizza’s base. Two more supplied water to the other thirsty workers. “It gets hot,” Oefinger said.

It took the group an hour and 45 minutes to complete the task. It also took a year to build the necessary equipment to cook the pizza. Despite their efforts and some claims that the pizza was the largest ever made, Guinness World Records recognizes a much larger, 1,261.7-square-meter (13,580.3 ft²) pizza made in Rome in 2012 as the record holder.^[11] The Dirt Road Cookers’ pizza would still be a daunting sight for even the most hardened eating contest veteran, however.

Gary Pullman, an instructor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, lives south of Area 51, which, according to his family and friends, explains “a lot.” His 2016 urban fantasy novel, A Whole World Full of Hurt, available on Amazon.com, was published by The Wild Rose Press.

You don’t have to be bitten by a radioactive spider, have super speed or strength, or have the ability to fly in order to be a hero. Being a hero simply means putting the needs of others before your own and relying on your own inner strength and courage, even in the face of danger or uncertainty.

Being a “hero” can span a variety of situations from paying for a person’s groceries when they come up short at the register, helping a new mother who’s struggling, granting a last wish to someone with a terminal illness, or just leaving a larger-than-usual tip for an employee in the service industry.

The ten pizza delivery drivers on this list had no idea the circumstances they were about to encounter as they made seemingly normal deliveries. However, rather than ignoring the situation or assuming they could not help, they heard the calls of those in need and chose to answer, ultimately saving the day and in some cases, the lives of their customers.

Related: 10 Times A Homeless Person Was A Hero (For Real)

10 Anson Lemmer

Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons

Nineteen-year-old Anson Lemmer, a pizza delivery driver for Uncle Pizza in Denver, Colorado, headed out for his last delivery on June 15, 2015. However, when a standard pizza delivery quickly became a medical emergency, Lemmer sprang into action.

When Lemmer arrived at his destination, he saw a man on the ground turning blue and in need of help. While there were other bystanders at the residence, they did not know CPR. However, Lemmer had received CPR training as a pre-teen and put that training to good use until first responders could arrive. By that time, the unnamed man was in stable condition and transported to the hospital, where he was later released. While Lemmer doesn’t consider himself a “hero,” he was honored by The American Red Cross on July 17, 2015, and presented with the Lifesaver Award.^[1]

9 Sofia Furtado

Caryn Sullivan of West Island Fairhaven, Massachusetts, placed a pizza order on February 11, 2022, but because her husband was asleep, she decided to wait outside her home for the delivery. Unfortunately, while waiting, Sullivan’s knee gave out, causing her to fall down a set of stairs and injure her head on the way down.

When Sophia Furtdao, the DoorDash delivery driver, arrived and saw Sullivan bleeding and unresponsive, she immediately went inside to notify Sullivan’s husband and call 911. Thankfully, Furtado also had previous EMT training, so she wasn’t afraid to assist and could follow the dispatcher’s instructions until medics arrived at the home.

While Sullivan underwent emergency surgery and months of recovery, doctors stated that had it not been for Furtado arriving when she did and assisting dispatchers, Sullivan would not have made it. The Fairhaven Police Department honored Furtado with a lifesaving award, and DoorDash also granted her a $1,000 educational grant to help her pursue her dreams of becoming an EMT.^[2]

8 Alou Bathily

In March 2019, twenty-one-year-old Alou Bathily, a native of West Africa, had only been a resident of the United States for two months. However, on the evening of March 29, not only was Bathily on a mission to serve pizza to a New York customer, but he also served up some much-needed justice.

While en route to a delivery, Bathily witnessed a police chase. Manhattan police were in pursuit of a suspect who previously had been harassing a woman and stole her headphones. When the suspect, 17-year-old Lovell Ambrister, took off on foot, Bathily refused to let him get away and chased after the young man on his bicycle. Bathily was able to tackle him to the ground and then stated he “sat on him for good measure” until the police arrived.

On April 23, 2019, the New York Police Department presented Bathily with an award for being a “local neighborhood superhero.” Not only was Bathily able to assist police in apprehending the suspect and saving the day, but he was also able to deliver the customer’s pizza in well under 30 minutes.^[3]

7 Nicholas Bostic

When 25-year-old pizza delivery driver Nicholas Bostic of Lafayette, Indiana, noticed a house engulfed in flames on the evening of July 11, 2022, he jumped into action without any second thoughts or hesitation. Thankfully, Bostic was able to enter the residence through an unlocked back door, where he began calling out to anyone who might have been inside.

Bostic found four children upstairs; however, once he had gotten them to safety, he was told a six-year-old girl was still inside the home. He ran back into the flames and was able to locate the child. Unfortunately, due to the intense amount of smoke, Bostic couldn’t find his way back out, so he took the little girl and jumped out of the second-story window, landing on his side to ensure she wasn’t injured during the escape.

Four of the children Bostic rescued lived in the home; one was a friend staying the night. The parents of the four children, David and Tiera Barrett, had gone out for a date night, and the fire later was deemed to have started due to a bucket of ashes on the porch that had not been fully extinguished.

Bostic suffered from severe smoke inhalation, deep cuts on his arms, and blisters on his hands but was released from the hospital a few days later. He was simply happy to know all of the children were okay. Needless to say, the Barretts are incredibly grateful for Bostic’s quick thinking and heroic actions, and they now consider him family.^[4]

6 Gilad Zargari

Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons

Seventeen-year-old Gilad Zargari is a pizza delivery driver in Be’er Sheeva, Israel. However, when he arrived to make a delivery on February 5, 2022, he was met by a young father in desperate need of help.

The father, Ran, told Zargari that his daughter was suffering from a febrile convulsion, a seizure that is brought on when a child’s temperature gets too high. The family was waiting for an ambulance to arrive. Thankfully, aside from delivering pizzas, Zargari was also a Magen David Adom (MDA) volunteer, which provides training in first-aid and emergency care.

Zargari immediately began doing what he had been trained to do. He called for a MICU, a mobile intensive care unit ambulance specifically equipped to care for those requiring immediate, high-level treatment, and wrapped the baby in a damp towel to bring her temperature down. Thanks to Zargari’s actions, the little girl had been stabilized by the time medics arrived. The little girl’s parents were extremely grateful that Zargari was the one who arrived on the scene and when he did, saying, “We received a pizza with a life-saving side order.”^[5]

5 Oregon Domino’s

Forty-eight-year-old Kirk Alexander of Salem, Oregon, had been a loyal Domino’s customer for over 10 years, ordering almost every single day. However, never could he have imagined that his love for pizza would ultimately save his life.

When 11 days had passed without a single incoming order from Alexander, general manager Sarah Fuller knew something had to be wrong and sent driver Tracey Hamblen to Alexander’s home to check on him. Hamblen had become well acquainted with Alexander and knew of his medical conditions. However, when Hamblen arrived, the lights and TV were on, but he was unable to get Alexander to answer the door or his phone.

Hamblen returned to the Domino’s store, where he and Fuller then called 911. First responders arrived and were able to rescue Alexander, who was believed to have had a stroke, although no specific details were released regarding his medical condition. However, the care of the Domino’s staff didn’t end after Alexander was transported to the hospital. They continued to make visits to check on him during his recovery.^[6]

4 Brad Lane

Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons

When pizza delivery driver Brad Lane received a phone call at Toppers Pizza in Clifton, Ohio, at 3:00 am on March 28, 2011, for a large order, something didn’t quite seem right. So rather than simply hanging up after the customer had finished his order, Lane continued to quietly listen to the man on the other end of the line. That’s when he overheard the plan to rob him during the delivery.

Lane and his manager then called 911. Between the efforts of 911 dispatchers and local police, they were able to set up a sting operation. They sent an undercover officer dressed as a pizza delivery man in Lane’s place. The criminals went through with their plan and attempted to grab the pizzas and flee, but the police already had the area surrounded and were waiting for them. Police arrested 19-year-old Kevon Whitfield and another 14-year-old who had also tried to rob a Pizza Hut the previous evening.^[7]

3 Karen Vogt

Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons

Karen Vogt was a pizza delivery driver for Mezzaluna Pizzeria in Ormond Beach, Florida, and also a favorite among its customers. However, on August 4, 2016, when Vogt attempted to deliver an order to an elderly customer who frequently ordered, and there was no answer at the door or by phone, she knew something was amiss.

After Vogt heard what she believed was a crash, she was determined to check on the customer and found a way to access the home through a door next to the garage. That’s when she saw that the customer had fallen trying to answer the door and was unable to get up. Vogt then alerted the pizzeria, who called for an ambulance while she waited with the elderly woman.

While the customer was able to come back home the next day, Vogt still felt bad that she never got to enjoy her pizza, so she paid for another one and delivered it to the woman personally.^[8]

2 Kaylene White

Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons

When a pizza order was made incorrectly on the evening of August 31, 2016, Domino’s driver Kaylene White was sent to deliver the corrected order to the Northside Senior Apartments in Angleton, Texas. However, little did she know that she was meant to be the one making the delivery that night.

Martha Norman, a resident at the complex, has a skin condition that often caused her to scratch herself, sometimes leading to bleeding. So when she called her daughter, Cheryl Stahl, saying she was bleeding, Stahl came to the complex to assess the situation. However, when she arrived, she saw her mother as well as the apartment covered in blood. After Norman was unable to explain what happened, Stahl panicked and was so hysterical she could not unlock her phone to call for assistance. That’s when she began screaming for help, and thankfully, White came running.

White had previous experience working in the medical field and immediately took charge of the situation by grabbing towels to form a tourniquet around Norman’s legs to stop the bleeding. When paramedics arrived on the scene, they confirmed that had it not been for White’s actions, Norman may have had a much different outcome.

Additionally, given her heroic efforts, one of the paramedics on call, Jason Albert, later went into the Domino’s store to inform White’s manager what had happened to ensure she did not face any consequences for returning late from the delivery. While White doesn’t consider herself a hero, both Norman and Stahl say that they will never forget her, and they consider her a “lifelong friend.”^[9]

1 Joey Grundl

Dean Hoffman forced his way into his ex-girlfriend’s home on the afternoon of September 27, 2018, where he proceeded to physically assault and hogtie her, holding her against her will. The woman naturally assumed she was going to die by Hoffman’s hand. However, Hoffman’s sinister plans were foiled when he made the mistake of ordering a pizza, which would be delivered by a very observant driver.

When Domino’s driver Joey Grundl arrived with the delivery order, the woman alerted Grundl to her black eye and mouthed the words “help me” and “call police.” Grundl kept his composure to not alert Hoffman that he knew something was wrong, and once he was back in his car, he called 911. Hoffman was arrested and charged with suspicion of kidnapping, false imprisonment, strangulation and suffocation, felony intimidation of a victim, and burglary.

Grundl was honored by Domino’s CEO and presented with the “Above and Beyond the Call of Duty” award. Additionally, when Grundl was spotted wearing a Taylor Swift sweatshirt during an interview, word spread to the pop star, and Swift invited him to meet her backstage after her concert in Arlington, Texas.^[10]

Long before DoorDash, Uber Eats, or Grubhub, pizza chains were the pioneers of delivery service. On hot days when you had no desire to fire up the oven, or on Fridays when the hustle and bustle of the week had brought you to exhaustion, you didn’t need an app or even internet access. All it took was a phone call to have a hot pepperoni, combination, or—dare we say—Hawaiian pizza delivered straight to your door.

While the ten stories on this list are a mix of tragedy, misfortune, and a bit of humor, they all have one thing in common. They are 10 examples of pizza deliveries gone terribly wrong.

Related: 10 Catastrophes Caused By Food

10 William Fields

Forty-five-year-old William Fields, or “Billy,” as he was better known, was well-known within the community of Connersville, Indiana, where he lived. He was also a favorite delivery driver for Pizza King, the company he worked at for almost 30 years. However, Fields could never have imagined that the seemingly routine delivery he would make on November 27, 2021, would also be his last.

As Fields approached the home and stepped onto the porch to make his delivery, the porch collapsed, leaving him unconscious and trapped by debris. Emergency responders were dispatched to the residence, and despite their best efforts to revive Fields, it was sadly too late. He was later pronounced dead at Reid-Health Connersville Hospital. While the exact circumstances surrounding what caused the porch to collapse are unknown, the authorities ruled Fields’s death an accident, and no criminal charges were filed.^[1]

9 Joshua Ungersma

Thirty-seven-year-old Joshua Ungersma of Lafayette, Indiana, was a hard-working, dedicated father. He was employed by Payless Supermarkets for over 10 years and took on a second-shift job with Domino’s, delivering pizza to support his wife and children during the pandemic. Sadly, his strong work ethic and willingness to support his family would cost him his life.

When Ungersma attempted to make a pizza delivery on August 31, 2020, to 17-year-old Jaelynn Billups and her 19-year-old boyfriend Alberto Vanmeter, things took a turn for the worst, and Ungersma was shot to death. However, when police arrived on the scene, they found both Ungersman and Vanmeter dead and Billups with a 9mm in her hands.

While Billups originally claimed the two men had shot each other, two other witnesses later testified that they saw Billups shoot Ungersman after he stated the couple had tried to rob him and asked the witnesses to call for help. Vanmeter had already been shot at this time. Billups later changed her story and stated she shot Ungersman “in the heat of the moment” after he killed her boyfriend. Billups was sentenced to 50 years in prison, and while we may never know the exact details that led up to the two men’s deaths, one fact remains—an innocent husband and father lost his life much too soon and over something as simple as a pizza order.^[2]

8 Kyle Hinkle

Eighteen-year-old Kyle Hinkle of Orange Park, Florida, was a delivery driver for Five Star Pizza and finished his scheduled delivery on the afternoon of September 5, 2015. While this seemed like any other day at work, the events that would ensue on his commute afterward are ones he will surely never forget.

After leaving the customer, Hinkle was hit by an 86-year-old man who turned directly in his path. Hinkle tried to avoid the elderly driver but was unable to, and his car was sent into flight, where he later landed on top of two other vehicles parked across the street at a Texas Roadhouse. As scary as the incident was, thankfully, neither driver was hurt.^[3]

7 Eryx Lynch

Twenty-year-old Eryx Lynch of Murray, Utah, was a shy young man who had endured a rough childhood. However, despite his circumstances, Lynch had big dreams and took a job delivering pizza for Domino’s in May of 2022 to help him pay for college. Unfortunately, he had only been on the job for one week when an error in judgment proved fatal.

On the evening of May 7, 2022, Lynch was making a delivery on his e-bike when he attempted to cross over a set of train tracks, even though the gate arm was down. As Lynch began to cross, he was struck by a train. Since Domino’s ended its “30 minutes or less” guarantee back in 1993, it is unclear what factors may have caused Lynch to take such an extreme risk. Regardless, Lynch’s sudden death will forever leave a hole in his family’s heart.^[4]

6 Cole Venables

Twenty-eight-year-old Cole Venables was a pizza delivery driver in Hopkins, Minnesota. On the evening of April 9, 2021, Venables struck and killed a pedestrian while en route to a delivery after “falling asleep” behind the wheel. However, 26-year-old Olivia DeMeuse’s death was no accident at all.

Authorities concluded that Venables was under the influence of narcotics, and he admitted to taking “Xanax, Suboxone, and benzos” prior to his shift. It was also later discovered that Venables had previous convictions of driving while impaired, so it is unclear how he was allowed to drive for the pizza chain. On February 24, 2022, Venables pleaded guilty to criminal vehicular homicide and was sentenced to a one-year term at the Hennepin County Workhouse (although he was credited 92 days for the time he previously served), as well as five years of probation.^[5]

5 Highway Pizza

We’ve all heard the slogan “It’s not delivery. It’s DiGiorno,” right? Well, in this particular case of a pizza delivery gone wrong, the headline reads, “It’s not delivery… it’s all over Interstate 30.” On August 9, 2017, a semi-truck was en route through Little Rock, Arkansas, to deliver both DiGiorno and Tombstone pizzas. Unfortunately, when the top of the semi-trailer hit the overpass, the trailer detached and was ripped open, and a wave of pizzas spewed across the interstate.

While it took transportation officials four hours to clean up the roadways, thankfully, no one, other than the pizzas, was hurt.^[6]

4 Juan Cristalinas

While 49-year-old Juan Cristalinas had an intimidating outer appearance, he was nothing other than a loving, kind-hearted husband, father, and grandfather. However, one simple act of charity on his part was met with violence.

Cristalinas held several different jobs, which included working as a mechanic as well as a pizza delivery driver for Domino’s, in order to be able to provide for his family. However, when Cristalinas didn’t return from a delivery in Stanton, California, on the evening of June 28, 2022, police were dispatched to the delivery address, where they found both Cristalinas and an unnamed elderly gentleman. Both had been shot and were taken to the hospital. Cristalinas was later pronounced dead, but the 76-year-old was in stable condition. The investigation into what occurred that tragic night is still under investigation. But it is believed that Cristalinas stopped to assist the elderly man and was shot while trying to be a good Samaritan.^[7]

3 Tara Miller

Tara Miller of Regina, Saskatchewan, had been a long-time customer of her local Domino’s, so when she got a craving for pizza on May 29, 2021, she placed an order as usual. Her pizza was delivered as expected, and Miller spent the afternoon sharing the pizza with her friends. While being surrounded by good friends and good food is invaluable, it wasn’t until her company was gone that Miller realized the true cost of that day’s meal.

Miller later checked her bank account only to discover that every cent in her account was gone. Naturally, Miller went in person to the Domino’s store in hopes of resolving the matter. However, the staff advised Miller that according to their records, the order she placed was for pick-up versus delivery. Overwhelmed and upset, Miller continued to plead her case that she had indeed placed a delivery order. It was later discovered that an unknown man had come in and picked up Miller’s order without her knowledge. He was also the same man who later delivered the pizza to her.

Fraudsters were posing as employees, and while they were delivering orders, they were also obtaining customers’ financial information when orders were paid for by either credit or debit cards upon arrival. Sadly, Miller was also not the only customer in the area to fall prey to this scam.

Thankfully, Miller’s bank reimbursed her for the fraud, and the Domino’s manager assisted in providing evidence to the police in hopes of catching the perpetrator. Given this experience, Miller will certainly never look at ordering pizza the same way again.^[8]

2 Pizza Hut Driver

An unidentified Pizza Hut delivery driver was making his last delivery of the night on January 21, 2020, when he witnessed an accident and pulled over to check on those involved. However, the driver’s honorable act would later lead him on a high-speed chase with the police.

After seeing 25-year-old Elpidio Cruz Jr and a two-year-old boy on the side of the road, the driver stopped to ensure they were okay. Around the same time, an officer arrived on the scene, and it was at that moment, rather than showing gratitude towards the delivery driver, Cruz pulled out a gun, climbed into his backseat along with the young boy, and forced the driver to flee the scene.

Cruz was on parole and was willing to do anything in his power not to go back to prison, so he demanded that the driver evade capture at any cost. The 20-minute chase ended at the home of 23-year-old Brena Riojas, who was also the little boy’s mother. Cruz again fled the scene and is still wanted by police. While the driver was not harmed, this terrifying pizza delivery is one that is sure to haunt him forever.^[9]

1 Au Naturel Pizza Customer

An unnamed female delivery driver for Domino’s was making a seemingly normal delivery to a customer on March 20, 2019. When she arrived, the gentleman was waiting outside, and his food was delivered without any issues. However, the male customer must have been intrigued by the driver as he began flirting and, later that afternoon, placed a second order.

When the same driver arrived again at the customer’s residence, the man opened the door, but this time she was met with a shocking sight—he was “almost naked.” The indecent man tried to coerce the driver inside, but she left immediately after seeing this pizza pervert.^[10]

The first known mention of pizza is in a 10th-century document from Lazio in Italy, with the modern version of the ever-popular dish coming from Naples. The international pizza market brings in around $128 billion annually, and a third of it takes place in the United States alone. These eateries differentiate themselves the best way they know how: laying on the toppings.

The first pizzeria in the United States opened in 1905—Lombardi’s in New York City. Since then, Americans haven’t stopped experimenting. Experimenting with things more extreme than the controversial pineapple on pizza debate. Here are ten of the weirdest pizza toppings out on the market.

10 Banana and Cheese

If you’re a sweet and savory kind of person, boy, do I have the pizza for you. A popular favorite offered by various chains in Brazil is the banana and cheese pizza. Generally, the cheese is standard mozzarella with banana slices sprinkled on top. Adding chocolate cream and cinnamon gives the dish some extra tang and stickiness.

I suppose you could also ask for pineapple if you want to start a furious argument among purists. I prefer having my pizza followed by dessert, but having both together saves time.

9 Prawns, Trout, Caviar, Oh My!

Steveston Pizza Co in Richmond, British Colombia, has a website that proudly states:

“Our vision is to disrupt what people think about what a pizza should be and transform eating pizza into a true culinary experience. We want every experience you have eating our pies to be a memorable one.”

The experience will certainly be memorable if you fork out $850 for the See Nay pizza. This is a 12-inch pie, so not for sharing! The topping combines tiger prawns, smoked steelhead trout, lobster ratatouille, Russian caviar, and Italian white truffles. This last ingredient bumps up the price; these truffles cost thousands of dollars a kilo.

Don’t worry. If you’ve had a couple of beers, you can’t order the See Nay on impulse—you need to order a day in advance so that the kitchen has time to prep. But the restaurant has much cheaper options. Pizza is an affordable staple for most people, but $850 might stretch the family budget just a hair.

8 Chilli Cheese Fritos

Beer made Milwaukee famous, but the city also deserves recognition for the Chilli Cheese Frito pizza served by Ian’s Pizza by the Slice. This crunchy topping is not one that comes to the top of my mind, but now it’s something I want to try after a wild Friday night.

At Ian’s, they liberally spread beef chilli over the base, then top it off with onions, cheddar cheese, sour cream, and Fritos. Nothing says American quite like combining two dishes that have nothing to do with the other, but if the glazed doughnut and cheeseburger can make it work, so can Ian’s pizza. Just be sure to have a few napkins handy.

7 Call of the Wild

Alaska. Beautiful. Untamed. Wild. It’s the largest state in the country but has a population of under 750,000. Around 40% of these people live in Anchorage. An Alaskan tends to be a person who values independence and relishes the often harsh conditions of the land. And there’s no question about this belief transferring to their food.

Anchorage’s motto is “Big Wild Life” and describes Moose’s Tooth Pub and Pizzeria well. This restaurant has a varied and hearty menu and serves various dishes, including their pizza. Not least among these is the Call of the Wild pizza.

Perhaps the topping on this pie would only seem exotic to non-Alaskans, but it certainly is filling. The crust is piled with bacon, steak, portobello and crimini mushrooms, a garlic cream sauce, and reindeer sausage. Not for the faint-hearted or those having recently eaten. Still, reindeer is a common meat in northern latitudes, so perhaps it’s not that weird.

6 Italian Mix

Pizzanista! in Los Angeles has been up and running since 2010. Founded by a famous skateboarder (this is Los Angeles, after all), the popular restaurant is adding more locations. Its website indicates what makes Pizzanista! stand out:

“Family-owned and operated, Pizzanista! Features traditional hand-tossed pizza dough made fresh daily using 200-year-old sourdough cultures from Naples…”

This will certainly reassure an Italian that the proper culinary traditions are alive and well in California. But they might raise an elegant eyebrow upon hearing that customers flock to Pizzanista! on Sundays to sample the infamous Macaroni and Cheese pizza. After all, nothing says Italia like taking time-honored traditional meals and simplifying them to American standards.

Pizzanista! is not the only place that offers this unlikely combination, but surely this is taking fusion a little too far. Macaroni and cheese is not a topping—it’s a separate meal. But if it sells, then why not?

5 Mashed Potatoes and Broccoli

New Haven in Connecticut boasts many fine pizza restaurants. Among them is BAR, a nightclub offering freshly brewed beer and dancing. Knowing full well that people like to eat something while they’re downing a few ales and bouncing around on the dance floor, BAR has a pizza oven to cater to its guests’ needs. Now, this is a brilliant idea that I’d love to see more of!

One of the options that wouldn’t tempt me, though, is the Mashed Potato and Bacon Pie. I can see the logic behind it—mashed potato lines the stomach and absorbs excess beer. But I can’t see it as a pizza topping. BAR also offers a breakfast-themed pizza of bacon, egg, and hot peppers. And this is the truly weirdest topping; BAR boasts of a chicken and broccoli pizza. I can’t think of anything worse to taint such a glorious meal.

4 Cheese ‘n’ Chickpeas

While Argentina is a Spanish-speaking country, it has a strong Italian heritage too. Many Italians flocked to Argentina to escape wars and economic turmoil, bringing their culture, language, and meals. Originating in Genoa, Italy, fainá is a chickpea pancake popular with Argentinians. Güerrin in Buenos Aires honors their connected roots to Italy and provides this as an option on their pizza.

You can order a regular pizza and have a fainá on top, or you can cover your whole pizza with fainá. Fans say the pancake’s creamy texture cuts the tomato sauce’s acidity and blends well with cheese. It seems odd, but the restaurant regularly sells over 600 portions of its pancake daily to pizza lovers. People obviously like the combination. I wonder if it’s available in the States?

3 Lemon Yogurt and Mango Chutney

Greenville, Delaware, is the home of Pizza by Elizabeth, a refined dining experience featuring artichoke and crab dip, curried pecan salads, and… tandoori pizza? Tandoori is an Indian dish of chicken marinated in yogurt. The blend of spices in tandoori cuisine – cumin, coriander, and turmeric – makes for a strong flavor. Here, the pizza dough is acting like a typical Indian bread.

Pizza by Elizabeth kicks it up a notch by serving up a lemon tahini yogurt and mango chutney. Some of their other weird toppings include sauces like pesto, rosemary onion, and green olive. Before stopping by, make sure your palette is up to their standards of elegance, or be prepared to hit Little Caesars on the way home.

2 Breakfast in Chicago

In Dimo’s Pizza in the Windy City, you can order the Breakfast of Champions pizza. It lives up to its name as the topping consists of scrambled eggs, chorizo, and fries on a base of white sauce and is finished with green onions and spicy mayonnaise. A fine breakfast indeed, but why slosh it on top of a pizza crust?

A large city like Chicago also has a strong Italian heritage and is full of pizza restaurants. Somehow, a restaurant has to attract new customers, and innovation with the toppings is one way to do it. To be successful, such restaurants have to offer old favorites as well. Dimo’s manages to do this with a wide range of pizzas. One wonders if things such as the Breakfast of Champions are publicity stunts that are not meant to be taken seriously.

1 Oh, My Omaha

The Pitch Pizzeria in Omaha, Nebraska, is well-reviewed on Tripadvisor and offers a wide variety of innovative food. Its website makes a special point of this:

“Each week, our chef crafts new, never-before-seen culinary wonders as the current special.”

The problem with a constant demand for innovation is that you can’t always hit the mark. One pizza Pitch offered includes a topping of pistachios, shrimp, and plum sauce. Plums. That is a culinary wonder, along with marsala fig sauce, pears, and truffle oil.

These combinations sound so bizarre; it has me scratching my head, asking, does such a combination belong on a pizza, or is it just innovation for innovation’s sake? We’ve come a long way from the basic Margherita. For now, I’m sticking with marinara and mozzarella, but eat away, my pizza connoisseurs.