5 crimes that pizza helped uncover
'09.02.2019'
Source: foreshortening
Sometimes criminals come across because of their own greed. Sometimes - thanks to irrefutable evidence. And sometimes it's all about cheese ... These attackers were brought to justice because of their love for pizza.
1. Serial killer case
In 2010, Los Angeles detectives began to suspect that the serial killer, nicknamed Grim Sleeper, which can be roughly translated as Grim asleep, is Lonnie Franklin Jr., a black American 1952, born foreshortening. Between 1985 and 2007, the year he killed at least 10 women.
To him, the police led a DNA test, which showed that the killer probably belongs to the family of Franklin. However, to prove the guilt they needed precisely the DNA of the killer.
DNA was obtained when Lonnie Franklin stopped at an Orange County pizzeria. After the killer ate his pizza, an undercover detective picked up a plate with leftover food and a napkin, ostensibly to throw it away, whereas he actually sent it for examination.
The judge recognized the evidence as admissible, and as a result, Franklin was sentenced to death in 2016.
2. Vegan fugitive case
The restaurateur Sarma Melngailis owned a vegan restaurant in New York called Pure Food and Wine. However, together with her husband, they unwisely disposed of investors' money. So, about 2 million dollars a couple spent on travel and gambling.
In 2014, Melngailis withdrew 1,6 million dollars from her working account and transferred them to her personal account, without paying the salary to her subordinates. For about a year, she and her husband spent the run, until they got caught in Tennessee in 2016 on the order of Domino's pizza in their real name. Pizza, by the way, was not vegetarian, chicken wings were also included in the order.
Melngailis, who later claimed that she had not eaten any meat dishes from this order, admitted her guilt and was sentenced to four months for large-scale theft and tax evasion. Her husband also admitted his guilt and spent a year behind bars. In 2018, the couple divorced.
3. The case of the pizza delivery robbery
One Friday evening in July 2016, Papa John's Pizza driver got out of Odenton, Maryland. An armed man immediately approached him and, threatening with a pistol, demanded that the courier return the cash and pizza.
The police, who arrived on the scene, found an empty pizza box and sent it for examination. Already on Wednesday, as a result of the evidence obtained and an eyewitness survey, a criminal was identified - 19-year-old Bershon Bertram Elijah Wheeler. He was charged with armed robbery, a first-degree attack, a second-degree attack, the use of firearms and theft in the amount of up to 100 dollars. Wheeler pleaded guilty.
4. The case of alimony
In 2006, Cynthia Brown, the former head of the Child Support Agency in Butler County, Ohio, ordered a pizza and noticed that there were several coupons attached to the box. This gave her the idea: if pizzerias can attach coupons, why not do the same with photos of parents who do not pay child support to children?
Brown agreed with three pizzerias and asked them to place advertisements for 10, the most malicious defaulters. Soon the first of them, who was hiding from the authorities, was caught.
5. The case of the abduction of the head of the hedge fund
In January 2003, ESL Investments President Edward Lampert spent about 30 hours hostage to three kidnappers who demanded a ransom for him. He was held in a hotel in Hamden, Connecticut, until Lampert failed to convince them to let him go, promising to pay 5 million dollars for this.
Meanwhile, one of the kidnappers took Lampert's credit cards and distributed them to his friends. Some of them eventually ordered a pizza, and soon after that, the FBI agents broke into place and detained the criminals. Gang leader Renaldo Rose was sentenced to 15 years in prison. After parole, he returned to his homeland, Jamaica.
