A Tennessee man was arrested after allegedly threatening restaurant staff with an AK-47 after being told that his pizza would take 10 minutes to be ready.
According to a police report cited by WATE on Tuesday, the suspect, who was later identified as Charles Doty Jr., 63, of Knoxville, grew agitated on Friday night when he was told about the wait at a Little Caesar’s restaurant. He then allegedly demanded free breadsticks before leaving the store only to return shortly after with an AK-47 and demand his pizza immediately. It was at this point that another customer in the store who had already received her pizza handed it to Doty, who then fled the scene, police said.
It has been reported that Doty also threatened an employee who was attempting to leave his shift and prevented him from doing so. The employee managed to run away to the back room and contact 911.
Doty was charged with four counts of aggravated assault and one count of especially aggravated kidnapping, according to WATE.
He is not the only customer to have recently threatened a restaurant employee during an argument. In June, a Florida Starbucks customer threatened a barista with a gun, demanding that she give him cream cheese, according to Newsweek.
That same month in Iowa, a 42-year-old man was arrested after allegedly threatening to blow up a McDonald's and punch an employee. At issue was that the employee reportedly did not give Robert Golwitzer Jr. dipping sauce to go with his nuggets. Newsweek reported that he made the threats over a phone call to the restaurant after realizing the order was incorrect.