Working in a pizza restaurant brings on its own stress. At the two outlets of Stash’s Pizza in Boston, Massachusetts, USA, six immigrant workers were reportedly abused by the owner.
Stavros Papantoniadis forced the employees to work more than 14 hours a day and almost without a day off. Worse, he threatened them with harm and deportation if they refused to comply.
Papantoniadis violently choked one worker who wanted to quit, causing the victim to flee in fear. He chased another worker who wanted out down a road and falsely reported him to police in a bid to force him to return to work, according to CNN.
The workers eventually reported the abuse and Papantoniadis was arrested, charged, tried and convicted of forced labor in June. Last week, he was sentenced to eight years in prison and fined $35,000, the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts said, CNN reported.
If making pizza made the lives of Papantoniadis’s workers’ miserable, ordering the popular pie proved to be life-saving to a woman in Pierson, Florida.
“I would like to order a pizza, I’m so stuck in here,” the woman told the person at the other end of the line, NBC News reports.
Although she had called the wrong number and not a pizza parlor, the woman was insistent.
“Can I get a pizza? A pepperoni and extra cheese,” NBC News quoted her as saying.
Fortunately, the 911 dispatcher did not take the caller as a prankster and asked her whether she knew she was calling 911.
“Yes, I’m sure I’m calling that number. Trying to get a pizza,” she said.
The dispatcher then asked for her location. “No. Basically, no, I’m stuck in here. Won’t take me back home,” she said, based on the audio of the conversation provided by the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office (VCSO).
She then told the 911 dispatcher that she was being held by one man, that he was not armed and that she was hurt, according to NBC News.
Police tracked the woman’s location and rushed to the field in Pierson. They found her being restrained by Luis Diego Hernandez-Moncayo, 27, an illegal alien.
The man was arrested and charged with attempted sexual battery, battery by strangulation and false imprisonment, the VCSO said on Facebook.
According to the woman, they were drinking in the field when Hernandez-Moncayo turned violent and restrained her after taking drugs.
Sheriff Michael J. Chitwood praised the woman for using a pizza order to call for help which led to her rescue.