Tag: Cops and Courts

Money in Politics

In Ky., corporations are now allowed to make contributions to campaigns through PACs, leveling the field with unions
Gregory Van Tatenhove
Tatenhove

The shift comes amid the ongoing fight over so-called right-to-work policies, according to a new WFPL story. “Until last week,” correspondent Ryland Barton says, “unions (usually anti-right-to-work) were allowed to make donations to candidates and political action committees, while corporations that support right-to-work were barred from doing so.”

Corporations and unions will now be allowed to donate to political action committees, but not directly to candidates. The change came after the Florida non-profit Protect My Check filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court arguing that state law unfairly favored unions. Judge Gregory Van Tatenhove largely sided with the non-profit March 31.

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.

Cops and Courts

After men used knife and gun, a bad day for Taco Bell in California, Texas and Missouri

The latest crime news across the world of 48,000 restaurants*. Updated 5:16 p.m.

Crime scene tapeA 21-year-old worker at a Taco Bell in Redding, Calif., was repeatedly stabbed about 6 p.m. yesterday by a customer armed with a pocket knife, who jumped over the counter after claiming employees stole his credit card.

Police arrested the suspect, Marco Osby, 46, outside the restaurant after customers and others tried to detain him, according to the Record Searchlight. Osby had been released from the Shasta County Jail only three hours earlier after being arrested in a separate incident Tuesday on suspicion of assault.

Marco Osby
Osby

The victim was taken to Mercy Medical Center where he was listed in good condition last night. Police said Osby claimed he is a paranoid schizophrenic in need of medication.

In Abilene, Texas, a grand jury indicted a 22-year-old man yesterday on charges of aggravated robbery, robbery, and possession of cocaine in an April 23 robbery of a Taco Bell.

Jacob Gongora
Gongora

The man, Jacob Lee Gongora, forced an employee to enter the manager’s office at gunpoint and demanded money, according to court documents cited by the Abilene Reporter-News. The manager told police Gongora pointed the gun at her, too.

Gongora took the money and fled the restaurant; police located and arrested him later, the newspaper said. He was found carrying a long rifle; a bag of money in his pants, and a small amount of white powder, believed to be cocaine, in his sock, according to court documents.

In Hazelwood, Mo., police were searching for someone who shot a 36-year-old woman in a Taco Bell parking lot yesterday around 2:30 p.m. Officers found the victim with a gunshot wound to her leg, according to KTVI. She was taken to a local hospital to be treated for a non-life threatening injury.

KFC

A shooting last night outside a Seattle-area KFC left two men injured, with one in critical condition. The shooting started in the restaurant’s parking lot in Tukwila, 11 miles south of Seattle, during an argument between two groups of young men. At some point, the groups began firing at each other in what witnesses described as a “gunfight,” according to the Seattle Times.

* 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

Idaho man arrested for threatening to kill Pizza Hut employees with a wrench; allegedly claimed food was poisoned

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

Crime scene tapeIn Twin Falls, Idaho, 38-year-old Seth Samuel Brooks was arraigned Tuesday in County Magistrate Court on a felony count of aggravated assault after he reportedly threatened to use a wrench to beat and kill Pizza Hut employees he said had poisoned his food.

An employee said she was outside behind the restaurant on a cigarette break when a silver Mitsubishi Lancer “drove at her aggressively,” court documents said, according to the Times-News. Brooks got out of the car holding a large wrench and started yelling at her about poisoning his food, the newspaper said.

Seth Samuel Brooks
Brooks

A Pizza Hut delivery driver saw the altercation and approached Brooks, who turned and threatened him, too, the Times-News said. Brooks then got in his car and left. Called to the scene, police arrested him about three miles away.

Brooks admitted to being angry at the employees and told cops he went there to confront them, but said he didn’t think he committed a crime because he didn’t actually hurt anyone, according to the Times-News.

Taco Bell

A deaf New Jersey woman sued the Mexican fast-food chain today in U.S. District Court, claiming she was discriminated against at two separate locations.

The woman, Gina Cirrincione, says she tried to buy food Jan. 11 from a Taco Bell drive-thru in Pleasantville by writing down her order and passing it directly to an employee at the pick-up window. In her lawsuit, she claims she was “berated” by a manager before receiving her order, according to foodie site Eater.

On the second occasion, March 15, the suit says Cirrincione tried using a drive-thru in Atlantic City, but was refused service entirely.

Her complaint cites the Americans With Disabilities Act, which requires businesses to provide goods and services and “make reasonable accommodations” for individuals with disabilities.

* 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.