Category: Cops and Courts

Cops and Courts

Okla. man charged with murder in stabbing death of 17-year-old Pizza Hut co-worker

The latest crime news across the world of 48,000 restaurants*.

Crime scene tapeIn Bristow, Okla., a 21-year-old man has been charged with first-degree murder after being accused of stabbing a teenage Pizza Hut co-worker before dumping him under a bridge, leaving him to die.

The man, Dakota Joe Spainhower, was charged in the July 18 death of 17-year-old Devin Bliss Lundberg, court records show, according to the Tulsa World newspaper. Authorities said Spainhower apparently had asked Lundberg for a ride home from the Pizza Hut about 10 p.m. When they got to his home, Spainhower told police, Lundberg attempted to stab him and demanded money.

Dakota Joe Spainhower
Spainhower

A probable cause affidavit cited by the World says Spainhower told investigators the two struggled and that Spainhower grabbed the knife away. Its blade broke in the struggle, and Spainhower retaliated by stabbing Lundberg in the chest and neck with the broken blade about five times.

The restaurant’s owner told KWTV there’d been no indication of problems between the two of them; the station didn’t identify the owner.

* Yum has 43,000 KFCs, Pizza Huts and Taco Bells in nearly 140 countries; Papa John’s has 4,900 in 37 countries, and Texas Roadhouse has 485 restaurants in five countries. With that many locations, crimes inevitably will occur — with potentially serious legal consequences for the companies.

Cops and Courts

Restaurant regulations 101: Risk factors companies face in the course of their business

Publicly traded companies disclose an array of risks to their businesses in annual reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Lawsuits and other legal proceedings are a big one, because they can spur huge monetary awards to plaintiffs.

Here are relevant passages from the “Risk Factors” section of the annual 10-K reports for three restaurant chain giants that are occasionally drawn into crime news stories; links are to the reports themselves. Continue reading “Restaurant regulations 101: Risk factors companies face in the course of their business” →

Cops and Courts

Video at Russian KFC: one man knocks another unconscious with ‘jaw-crushing right hook’; and U.K. man to be tried in horrific attack on 17-year-old at Hut

The latest crime news across the world of 48,000 restaurants*; updated 3:02 p.m.

Crime scene tapeAt a KFC in Russia, one man cold-cocked another diner out cold in an incident caught on video by a witness who described it as “the hardest punch I’ve ever seen.”

In the background of the video, according to the U.K.’s Daily Star, a large man dressed in a blue polo shirt engages in an escalating war of words with another diner in a pink sleeveless vest. The man in the vest appears to try and grab his dining partner, “but it’s clearly a mistake — the man in blue pushes him away “before launching a jaw-crushing right hook.”

The Daily Star story doesn’t say when the fight took place. Here’s the video:

Pizza Hut

In the U.K. 18 miles south of London, a 32-year-old man accused of raping, stabbing and kidnapping a teenage girl last month will face trial in November. The incident started at a Pizza Hut in Epsom, according to news reports.

The man, Costica Voedes of Epsom, has been charged with two counts of wounding with intent, two counts of rape, kidnap, false imprisonment, possession of an offensive weapon, affray and common assault, according to the Epsom Guardian. He will be tried at Guildford Crown Court on Nov. 21, with the trial expected to last seven days.

Voedes did not appear at a pre-trial preparation hearing at Guildford Crown Court yesterday, and so did not enter a plea, the Guardian said.

Surrey police said the charges relate to an incident that took place shortly after 10.30 p.m. on June 17 — a Friday — at the Pizza Hut restaurant on Waterloo Road and Court Recreation Ground. Police say Voedes burst into the outlet and dragged the 17-year-old girl outside, later raping her at a nearby recreation ground, according to the Sun.

A restaurant employee  who rushed to intervene was also attacked and injured, the Sun said.

* Yum has 43,000 KFCs, Pizza Huts and Taco Bells in nearly 140 countries; Papa John’s has 4,900 in 37 countries, and Texas Roadhouse has 485 restaurants in five countries. With that many locations, crimes inevitably will occur — with potentially serious legal consequences for the companies.

Cops and Courts

Pizza Hut restaurants and a deliveryman robbed at gunpoint in Kansas, Illinois and Florida

The latest crime news across the world of 48,000 restaurants*.

Crime scene tapeIn Kansas, Wichita police are searching for the suspect in a $1,500 armed robbery at a Pizza Hut late Sunday night. Employees at the restaurant, ages 21, 20 and 19, told officers a man entered the store, pointed a gun at all three of them, and demanded money, according to KAKE.

In Freeport, Ill., two masked men struck a Pizza Hut delivery man with a pistol Friday night before stealing his two pizzas and 24 wings, according to authorities. The delivery man was approaching a home when he was grabbed from behind. Two masked men pointed a pistol at him and struck him before taking off with the order, according to the Journal Standard.

In south Florida, Broward County deputies are searching for a man suspected of robbing a Pizza Hut earlier this month in Deerfield Beach. Deputies said the man placed an order July 8 around 11 p.m., then pulled out a gun once the register was open. He reached over the counter, grabbed cash out of the register and ran away, deputies told the Sun Sentinel.

Three days later, the suspected bandit and an accomplice robbed a Family Dollar store at gunpoint, a theft that was caught on a surveillance camera.

* Yum has 43,000 KFCs, Pizza Huts and Taco Bells in nearly 140 countries; Papa John’s has 4,900 in 37 countries, and Texas Roadhouse has 485 restaurants in five countries. With that many locations, crimes inevitably will occur — with potentially serious legal consequences for the companies.

Cops and Courts

Shooting in Colo. Taco Bell lot leaves one man dead; in Montana, man arrested for threatening Papa John’s delivery man with gun

The latest crime news across the world of 48,000 restaurants*. Updated 8:19 p.m.

Crime scene tapeColorado Springs police are investigating a shooting in a Taco Bell parking lot yesterday afternoon that left one person dead. Initial reports said the incident might have been the result of road rage, but witnesses were still being interviewed by police.

The two parties were in the parking lot of the Taco Bell, one inside of a vehicle and the other outside. The victim outside of the vehicle was shot and later pronounced dead at Memorial Hospital Central, according to The Denver Post.

Papa John’s

In Montana, a 35-year-old Bozeman man with a previous conviction of assault on a peace officer was arrested after holding a pistol to the head of a Papa John’s delivery driver early yesterday morning.

The man, Nickolas Stephen Jennings, was charged with assault with a weapon, a felony and was being held on $15,000 bond, according to KZBK. Jennings was arrested after the driver reported that a man had held a handgun to his head while he was trying to deliver a pizza to an apartment at approximately 3:39 a.m.

In Penn Hills, Pa., a Papa John’s manager told police two men wearing masks, one of them armed with a gun, demanded money from the safe late Friday night.

But the manager couldn’t open the safe, which was on a timer, and subsequently was struck in the face with the firearm, leaving a 2-inch gash under his left eye, then locked in the freezer, according to Penn Hills police Chief Howard Burton. The suspects also stole the manager’s wallet, cellphone, and credit cards, according to Trib Live.

He was treated by medics at the scene, Burton said.

Pizza Hut

In New Orleans, a gunman made off with about $450 in cash after robbing a Pizza Hut early yesterday.

Two employees were taking out trash shortly after 12:30 a.m. when the man entered the restaurant through the back door. Once inside, he ordered employees to empty the cash register, then left out the back door with $450, police said, according to The Times-Picayune.

* Yum has 43,000 KFCs, Pizza Huts and Taco Bells in nearly 140 countries; Papa John’s has 4,900 in 37 countries, and Texas Roadhouse has 485 restaurants in five countries. With that many locations, crimes inevitably will occur — with potentially serious legal consequences for the companies.

Cops and Courts

A knife and a gun used in separate robberies at Papa John’s and Pizza Hut in Delaware and Texas

The latest crime news across the world of 48,000 restaurants*.

Crime scene tapeIn Delaware, State Police are investigating an armed robbery at a New Castle County Papa John’s Thursday afternoon. Around 4:30, a male suspect entered the restaurant off East Basin Road, armed with a knife and demanding money. Employees turned over an undisclosed amount of money, and the suspect fled. There were no injuries, according to Delaware 105.9.

In Palmview, Texas, a man and a woman are facing aggravated robbery charges for allegedly stealing a money bag from a Pizza Hut at gunpoint on May 1. Jailers booked Jose Refugio Guerra Moreno, 23, of Peñitas and Alondra Torres Reynoso, 19.

The restaurant’s assistant manager told authorities she had finished tallying up money from the cash registers, when a man wearing a ski mask entered the restaurant, armed with a hand gun and demanding money. He then fled on foot, according to the Sheriff’s Office. Nobody was injured during the robbery, according to KGBT. Reynoso, his girlfriend, was arrested for allegedly being his accomplish, says KVEO.

* Yum has 43,000 KFCs, Pizza Huts and Taco Bells in nearly 140 countries; Papa John’s has 4,900 in 37 countries, and Texas Roadhouse has 485 restaurants in five countries. With that many locations, crimes inevitably will occur — with potentially serious legal consequences for the companies.