A lot of times in this day an age you will find that you get what you play for. You better know your area man. They were delivering in no man's land with an armed extra in the vehicle...what were they think'in! Buy our pizza...we deliver like Brinks. Greed combined with stupidity got that poor boy shot...he's probably lucky the armed escort wasn't with him on that ill fated delivery....they might both have ended up dead.
I grew up in Detroit and occasionally found myself in dicey situations that had nothing to do with greed - or providing services to an underserved neighborhood. If there had been someone 'riding shotgun' on that run there's a good chance nothing would've come from it. Predators of this sort work by separating a young one from the herd. Pizza delivery drivers are ideal because you can tell them exactly where to go and what to do.
But when I had my pizza delivery moment, it wasn't in Detroit, but a small town in Indiana. I was asked to go around to the back of a house (red flag) and up a flight of stairs. The delivery went off without a hitch, but upon walking back down the side of the house, I happened to notice a shadow that should have been straight from the corner of the building. Instead it was shaped like a silouette of a person. I stopped in my tracks and gave it a wide berth. Sure enough, someone had plastered himself against the wall waiting for me to pass. As I moved around the corner, fully aware of his presence, he smiled nervously and scurried down the walk where I had just been.
I'll never know what might have happened had I not noticed that shadow. Perhaps he was going to clock me from behind. Perhaps he was worried about someone looking for him. But whatever the case, the problem was not with me, or my employer. I think it's right that a light be shone upon the communities where these sort of things happen.
