Crime & Safety

Police: Pizza Trail Led Cops to Men Who Robbed, Beat Delivery Man

Two Romeoville men were arrested Tuesday night after police said they lured a pizza driver to a vacant home and beat him with a rubber hammer.

Two Romeoville men are in jail Wednesday after calling in a phony pizza order, then assaulting the delivery driver and stealing his cell phone and cash, said.

William C. Whitford, 18, of the 500 block of Maggie, and Allen Freeman Jr., 20, of the 1200 block of Sante Fe, face aggravated robbery charges.

Police said the men called in an order for two pizzas to the restaurant in Bolingbrook, giving the address of a vacant foreclosed home in Romeoville.

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The men then laid in wait for the driver, Assistant Police Chief Steven Lucchesi said. After arriving at the home in the 500 block of Frieh, the delivery man knocked on the door but received no answer. Lucchesi said the bandits struck as he walked back to his car.

“They set this up and then they waited for him to arrive and then they attacked,” he said.

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The driver described his attackers to police, saying one was a white male, while the other appeared to be wearing a black ski mask. In actuality, thief had cut eye holes in a black T-shirt and pulled it up over his face, Lucchesi said.

The men beat the 32-year-old driver with their fists before one of them attacked him with a rubber mallet, police said. The delivery man suffered injuries to his head and torso and was transported to .

Lucchesi said Whitford and Freeman stole $108 in cash, the two pizzas and a cell phone from the delivery man.

The decision to nab the pizza helped lead to the men’s arrest, according to Lucchesi.

While officers were speaking with the victim, a neighbor spotted two men lurking nearby, eating pizza a few houses down from the crime scene.

“From there, [officers] followed the trail of pizza,” Lucchesi said.

Police were also able to trace the cell phone used to place the pizza order back to a relative of Whitford. The suspect had been staying with the relative in the 500 block of Maggie Lane.

The pizza trail, along with the cell phone, led police to the Maggie Lane home, where they spoke with Whitford. Under questioning, both men admitted to attacking and robbing the delivery man, police said.

Lucchesi said no information on the driver’s condition was available on Wednesday.

Whitford and Freeman are being held at the Will County jail. Both are due in court Thursday.


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