When delivering pizzas, the drivers don't expect to happen. Just a simple routine of dropping off the pizzas and getting paid by the customer, right? Well, that doesn't always happen. Sometimes, an ordinary delivery can be anything but ordinary.
Pizza deliver drivers on Reddit share the strangest things they've ever seen while delivering pizzas. Content has been edited for clarity.
“His Eyes Get Huge And Wide”
“Customer paid with a card, and he had instructions to leave the pizza on a bench in a public area. I dropped it off and quickly left the area. I left, but pulled on a side street where I could see the bench. I wait probably close to five minutes and then I see a man bust out of a dilapidated building I thought was empty. He runs up and grabs the pizza, he spins a whole 360 degrees, and he is glancing in every direction as if he was afraid he was being watched.
Then he hurries back to the place. When he gets to the door he sees me and his eyes get huge and wide, paranoid and fearful. He slammed the door shut. I just think he was tweaking or something, wouldn’t be out of the ordinary around here.”
“I Showed Up Way Earlier”
“I delivered to a hotel in the middle of a local golf course. Called the number to let them know I was there and was told to come on up. Get to the room and when the guy answered, there was a large group of guys, all in golf attire, surrounding a single guy in a chair. He was bound & blindfolded. The one that answered didn’t even bat an eye, just asked how much and tipped me $30 bucks.
Warily I took the money and walked away, but before the door was fully closed, I heard one on the guys ask “I wonder if he knows this is a..’
Before I even left the parking lot, the guy that answered the door called me to say that the bound guy was his brother, and he was bound & blindfolded because it’s his bachelor party and the lady of the night was waiting to come out. I just showed up way earlier than they thought I would.”
“Who Cares If He Sees?”
“I once delivered a pizza late at night. The person who took the call told me the person who ordered (lets call him ‘Mark’) was an old man, and may take a while to get to the door. I get to the house and all the lights are off, no car in the driveway. I ring the doorbell, no answer, I knock on the door, no answer, I call the person’s phone, no answer, call again, still nothing. At this point I had waited for about 15 minutes for this person and was walking back to my car to leave, when I hear the front door open, so I go back. Again, there aren’t any lights on, so I can only see the head of a young woman peek from behind the door. She refuses to open it all the way, even to take the pizza.
I then hear another woman behind her saying, ‘Who cares if he sees, open the door,’ so she opens it a little more to sign the receipt.
She couldn’t see, so I offer to shine my phone’s flashlight, so she can sign the receipt. I then realize that both of these women are unclothed. Me being the good employee I was averted my eyes as she signed the receipt and I start walking back to my car. As I was walking away, one of the women yells at me ‘Have a good night, you know Mark is!’
I burst into laughter, as I had totally forgotten this was the house of an elderly man.”
“The Aprons Were Glistening With Some Fluid”
“Delivered a pizza to the backdoor of a funeral home. Two guys in their 20s answer the door, both wearing long black rubber aprons over their shirts and ties, and long black rubber gloves. The aprons were glistening with some fluid or other.
Fortunately, the guy paying took off his gloves before pulling out his wallet and paying. I was only 18 at the time, kinda freaked me out. To the point that today, 42 years later, I still remember it.”
“I’m Kinda Just Taken Aback”
“One time I was delivering to this really nice house, almost like a mansion. So the guy comes waltzing out this big front door clearly hammered, just all over the place. He attempts to give me the money but starts blabbering on about something I can’t understand. While he’s scavenging around his pockets trying to find the rest that he owes me this one woman comes out shouting (let’s call him Leo) ‘Leo, Leo! What are you doing out here, oh god what are we going to do with you?’
She apologizes for Leo and proceeds to pay and tip pretty well, all while Leo gets one last question in with a smile ear to ear, ‘You like older women? She single.’
I’m kinda just taken aback. At the time, I was a 16-year-old kid just driving food around it just threw me off. She then proceeds to scold him in a motherly type way ‘I am not single! This is my boyfriend’s house.’
“For Heck’s Sake Joe”
“I (a 21 year-old female at the time) worked at a pizza place in the summers when I was home from college. I mostly worked afternoons, but a coworker had a family emergency and asked me to cover for him on a Saturday night delivery shift. I ended up delivering about six pizzas to a backyard bachelor party. While the bachelor (Dave) went inside to get cash, one of the very hammered guests started chatting with me. He asked where I went to school and was surprised when I told him I was in college (I looked young for my age). When the bachelor came back the conversation went as follows:
Hammered dude: ‘Yo Dave. She goes to my alma matter. (Turns to me) So it’s Dave’s bachelor party. How much do we have to tip you to show him your bare chest?’
Dave: ‘For heck’s sake Joe, you can’t just ask the Pizza Girl to flash you.’
Dave: (to me while handing me an extra $20) I am so sorry. Please don’t tell your boss about this. I really like your pizza.'”
“It Just Seemed Really Off”
“My boyfriend delivered for Domino’s a couple of years back, and called me one night because a delivery just messed him up.
It was called to a house, and a woman opened the door, but explained that he needed to go around to the door in the fence, it was for the people in the backyard. Okay, maybe there’s a party? It’s 8:30 on a Tuesday.
He walked around the house and opened the gate in the fence – and it’s not a party.
It’s a grown man and his two kids living in her storage shed. They had a dangling light bulb, sleeping bags (clearly two children ones), and some bottled water. But these two kids under 10 are just playing around in the backyard while the dad sits on his phone. Bf said they looked unkempt, their clothing seemed dirty, it just seemed really off. He tipped him, and my boyfriend walked away, but he could see a bucket behind the shed too, and smell it. There were suitcases inside the shed too.
He called me immediately (I work in the youth non-profit world), and asked what to do. He didn’t want any involvement with calling someone about it, so I called for a wellness check for him to the local cops. Never did find out what was happening.”
“Maybe These Are The Guys?”
“I was told to deliver a large pie and some drinks to someone at this nice hotel on a random fateful Sunday, and was told he would meet me in the lobby. When I had left the pizzeria with his order, he actually came to pick up the order and had to go back to meet me lol;
So this is where it gets strange. I pull up to the hotel and find a good spot in front of the entrance, and I see about 20-30 ‘businessmen’ and women standing outside talking and getting ready to go in or something. I didn’t think much of it, so I go inside, I put the food on this table, so I didn’t have to hold it and start waiting. As I’m waiting, these two men who looked serious had just entered the hotel and I thought Oh maybe these are the guys? So I was looking at them a bit, and one noticed, so they started walking my way and began to start shaking my hand, I was confused but accepted it and started smiling and whatever saying have a good day, etc.
And then all of a sudden all those people from outside and more begin lining up to shake my hand and enter the hotel. You could imagine me and the hotel staff’s reactions as I’m just a delivery guy trying to do his job, and now I got people shaking my hand as if I’m famous or something.
So I, indeed, shook all of those hands, and also shared some joy with each person that did. Eventually the guy showed up and got his food and by that time it was over, and so I just left.
Went to go tell my co-workers when I got back, and they freaking lost it, I mean I’ve never seen these grown men laugh harder in their lives, I was unsure why it was so funny, like yeah it was a little funny and weird but not that crazy.
Until they told me that, every Sunday, that hotel is known for hosting wakes.”
“He Was Nearly In Tears”
“In college, I was sent out to deliver to ‘the yellow and white tent on Park and Central.’ It was coming up pretty close to the fourth of July, so I didn’t think much of it. I was thinking it was a fireworks stand at the parking lot in the nearby park. I headed out and when I got close, I started looking for the tent but there wasn’t even a little tent at the corner. I circled the block and no tent.
I made one last circle and a grubby looking guy waved me down. Turns out he was homeless, and after he placed the order (via nearby pay phone) the cops came by and basically made him take his tent down in the park. He was really distraught and nearly in tears. I told him to get into the car and drove him to a nearby hotel and paid for a room for the night (it was hot as heck out) and paid for it out of my tips (not the Ritz but passable for the price). I didn’t charge him for the pizza, and he was thanking me and in tears the whole time I was trying to leave.
Two years later, I was working a different job in a new apartment and called to order a pizza from my old place, and they asked to confirm my name. I did and he told me to hold. The manager got on the line and said that the homeless guy got a job and back on his feet not long after and came in to thank me and pay me back. I had already moved on and had a new address (didn’t have a cell at the time or the same number).”
“I Regret Not Staying”
“It’s been over 10 years since I delivered pizza, but this one will always stand out to me. It was summer, and I was delivering pizza on a Friday night. There is clearly a party going on at the house. Guy answers the door, no shirt on, clearly buzzed. Again its summer, so I figure pool party or something. Wrong, a couple seconds later a very attractive woman walks up wearing just a bra and thong says hi and takes the pizza.
The guy pays and then offers me a drink. I decline because, I was underage, I was working, and I was driving too. He then offers a Red Bull which I didn’t turn down. He tells me to come in and lo and behold, there are two other guys and four girls sitting at the kitchen table playing strip poker. The girls were all smoke shows with two already completely topless. The guys were all good-looking too. They offered to deal me in, and to this day sometimes I regret not staying. It made it worse when I get back to the store, tell my manager what happened, and he actually got mad at me for not just texting him the situation and that I could have stayed.”
“The Public Humiliation Was A Nice Bonus”
“I was delivering pizzas on a Friday night, and had a three pizza order to a fairly nice neighborhood. I roll up and park and it’s clear there are a ton of cars outside this house, both sides of the street. I ring the doorbell and two ladies answer and say ‘Congratulations! You are the first to show up! You win the gold medal!’
Confused – I end up figuring out that they’ve ordered pizza from three places in town, and I was the first one there. Cool, I think, I’ll probably get a sweet tip. They tell me they want to give me my award downstairs. Probably a little too trusting, but I went along with it. I follow them down the stairs…
This basement is completely full of young teenage kids. It looks to be some kind of religious get-together or something of the sort. But there are a ton of them. They walk me to the front of this crowd, and they have a mic connected to speakers.
They announce where I am from and blindside me with questions. The one I remember was ‘Why is pizza from your shop the best?’
I give some dumb answer like ‘We have the best ingredients.’
They then put a plastic gold medal around my neck and walk me back upstairs for my tip.
It was a measly $5.00 on a $60+ order, but the public humiliation was a nice bonus I guess.”
“Definitely An Interesting Experience”
“I delivered pizza in rural Pennsylvania for a few years in college. Believe it or not, Amish people love pizza and place big delivery orders. One delivery in particular sticks out in my mind, and that was a delivery to Mr. Smucker during a snow storm.
We all fought for the Smucker delivery because he was a good tipper ($10-$12). This particular night it started snowing pretty hard, and we were limiting our deliveries for safety reasons when his call came through. His order was pretty big, so we decided to do it, and I was lucky enough to take it.
Fast-forward about 30 minutes, I’m turning into his unpaved 1/4 mile driveway on his farm in my beat 96 Sentra. Off the road there was a good three inches already and the driveway was covered. Not to mention pitch black, because you know, no electricity. I try to get some speed as there is a slight grade downward but ultimately find myself stuck between the road and his house. I get out and about to trudge the rest of the way when I see a lantern in the distance. Smucker and his four sons saw I got stuck and came to help.
So he pays. $12 in my pocket for a tip. He tells me to put the car in reverse and his boys will help me out.
So imagine this. You just delivered pizza, wings and mountain dew to an Amish guy and his massive family at like nine pm during a snow storm. Four teens with bowl cuts and suspenders are putting their weight into the front of your car as you reverse out of an unpaved driveway in near blinding conditions. They got me out but I always crack up thinking about. Definitely an interesting experience.”
“It Sounded Sketchy”
“I used to deliver pizzas many years ago.
One time, I pulled into a small house, cop pulls in the drive behind me and gets out of his car as I’m getting out and the cop says ‘I’ll just go ahead and get you right here.’
He pulls out his wallet and goes to pay for the pizza. I legit thought for a minute that the dude was going to give me a ticket. Turns out, he pre-order so the pizza would show up when he got off.
Another time I showed up to a house, and they had some cameras set up, as well as some lightning equipment and microphones etc. After the paying the guy said ‘Hey what time you get off?’
I sorta gave him a half answer, and then he said, ‘Hey, if you’re not busy and want to make some money we are shooting some amateur adult movies later, drop by if you’re interested. ‘
He gave me a card, (technically at that point I don’t think they would be considered amateur). I noped out of there finished my shift and went home. Whatever they could ‘use me for.’ I wasn’t interested and it sounded sketchy.
There were also the people that would order the same thing, on the same pattern. For instance there was nice older lady who every other Friday would order a medium pizza with triple onions. When you delivered the pizza, she would tell you about her week, what she did with her grand kids, what happened at bible study, a funny thing that happened to one of her friends at the beauty parlor etc. It was always the same smelly pizza lady just liked onions like a lot. I thought it was nice how personal she was, most of our other workers thought it was weird though.”
“You Didn’t Recognize Me, Did You?”
“Delivered for Little Squeezers back in the day. I get to this house, and they pay me for the large pizza. Before they close the door, they hand it back to me and ask me to flip the box upside down and hand it back to them. So I did it. They happily took it back from me and closed the door. When I got back to the store, they had called and yelled at the manager. They claimed I had intentionally flipped their pizza in front of them, and now all the toppings and cheese were stuck to the lid of the box. The manager knew I wouldn’t have done that, so he goes ahead and apologized to the freaks and asked how he could remedy this situation. They of course demanded a new pizza and two two-liter bottles of Pepsi (no Coke). He agrees and says I will return to them to apologize. I was super upset.
So he didn’t report the complaint, but we got revenge.
I made a fresh pizza with three layers of cheese. So much that we didn’t even attempt to cut it. Put it in a box upside down with the crust up, and put it in the warm bag we deliver with. Let it sit for about 10 minutes, so it stuck to the box like super glue. I spent that 10 minutes shaking the two two-liter Pepsi bottle, so they would explode when opened. Then the manager rode with me over there and walked to the door with me. He knocked and I looked like a kid who got caught in the cookie jar with my head hanging down.
They opened the door and my manager spoke. He looked at me and with a stern voice said ‘Apologize to our best customers!’
So I said sheepishly, ‘Sorry.’
They smugly smirked at me. And I handed them the two bottles (that my manager shook the whole ride there) then he handed them their fresh free pizza. As they turned around we saw most of the first pizza had been eaten and left out in the table. Then we left and flew back to the store.
The other guy had put the phone on hold, so we could take the new call. It went something like this…on speakerphone
Mad customer: ‘Our new pizza was upside down and not even cut, there is cold cheese like concrete in the box. And the drinks exploded all over our kitchen. I want that guy fired!’
Manager: ‘You didn’t recognize me, did you? I delivered to your house last year and you pulled the same stupid idea you just tried again today. I remember how you made me flip it over and hand it back. I was written up for that. You also got a free pizza last time and two drinks. So I thought this might show you that you can’t get away with this again.”
Customer: ‘I’ll sue you for the cost of cleaning my kitchen. And I’ll call corporate and have you all fired!’
Manager: ‘If you ever order anything else from my store not only will you be denied service, but I will call the police and say how you just stole from us to the amount of $27.’ (Total bluff)
Customer ‘Then I’ll just come down there and kick your butt!’
Manager hung up the phone and called the police who were there waiting on him when he showed up. He had a tire iron in his hand and was running toward the store. As soon as he entered, he was tazed and arrested. We pressed charges and he spent six months in jail.
Moral…..don’t mess with people who make your food. We are very vindictive when you mess with us.”
“I Think About That Pour Guy”
“I was taking a large order of six pizzas to what I assumed was a party. As I approached the address, I could see the road blocked off by fire trucks and police vehicles. One of the houses on the street was engulfed in flames. Wondering how I was going to get through, because I wasn’t at the address yet (this was before GPS), someone ran up to me on the sidewalk and flagged me down. He gave me the name on the slip and paid me.
I asked him what happened, and he told me it was his house that was on fire. A bunch of neighbors had come and helped him save some of his stuff, and now they were all watching it burn. So he figured the least he could do was order pizza for everyone. He even tipped me. I think about that poor guy still, and hope he had good insurance.”
