Pizza Hut fires employee who shot robber

Published: April 25, 2008 at 3:48 PM
Order reprints
DES MOINES, Iowa, April 25 (UPI) -- Pizza Hut has fired an Iowa deliveryman who fought off an armed robber because the deliveryman violated company rules on carrying a weapon.

A company spokesman said that James Williams Spiers III had been offered a severance package including counseling and help finding another job, The Des Moines (Iowa) Register reported.

"I was terminated but they're not going to kick me to the curb," Spiers told the newspaper Friday. "When they terminated me, I had asked if they could provide me with counseling. That's all I asked for."

Spiers had a permit for the handgun he used to shoot and disarm a man who held him up in Des Moines in late March. A suspect was arrested when he went to a hospital for treatment and a woman has been charged with calling in a phony order to set up the robbery.

State Sen. Brad Zaun, R-Urbandale, urged Iowa residents to boycott Pizza Hut.

"You tell me any Iowan that was in his situation, that had a gun put to his head, how they would've reacted differently," Zaun told the Register.


© 2008 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved.


Former Beatles manager Klein dead at 77 (<1 min)
Anglican bishop: Gays must repent (10 min)
Living statues coming to London square (15 min)
Disney World monorail driver dies in crash (26 min)
Obesity increasing among poor Brit kids (29 min)
Tennesseans remember Steve McNair (31 min)
UPI NewsTrack TopNews (31 min)
Photoshop this rugged race
Afghanistan as a major tourist destination? The tag says it all
If you've been getting unemployment in Indiana, and haven't put on your really, truly bestest effort...
63 years ago today, the bikini was introduced
Sarah Palin has apparently hired someone with a GED in Law, threatens to sue bloggers for defamation...
If you have a beer belly, blame your dad, not all the beer you've been drinking since you were 14...