Multiple delivery drivers allegedly robbed at gunpoint at same Youngstown home

Betty Myers of Youngstown tells 21 News she was surprised Saturday night to see a large police presence outside her home.

“They had our houses surrounded,” Myers said. “From my neighbor's house all the way up [the street] was police.”

But the South Side woman was even more shocked to learn why they had arrived: a delivery driver was allegedly robbed on her front doorstep, and it wasn’t the first time.

According to Youngstown Police reports, there have been at least two aggravated robberies outside Myers’ home in the past week — one last Thursday, and the incident Saturday. Each involved a pizza delivery driver, one from Papa John’s and one from Domino’s. 

In each of the incidents, after the driver arrived on scene, a suspect or multiple suspects emerged from hiding and brandished a gun. One suspect allegedly told a driver to “give them everything or they would kill him." 

The drivers turned over their own wallets, cash they carried for change, their unlocked cell phones and even the pizzas they were called to deliver. 

Myers said the food orders weren’t placed by anyone in the home, leading her to wonder why the criminals are using her address to lure in unsuspecting victims. She also said she wasn’t aware the robberies happened until police told her. 

“I didn't hear nothing,” she said — which, according to police, may have been by design. 

The report for Saturday’s incident says the victim told police there was a sign on the front door when he arrived, which said not to knock. Later on, a detective on scene said there was no such sign on the door, “indicating that the suspects may have put the sign on the door so that the delivery driver did not disturb the actual residents at the house.”

The situation has been frightening for Myers, she said, adding that she believes another attempted robbery may have been narrowly missed Monday. 

Myers’ neighbor, Jessica Tarpley, told 21 News a man came to Myers’ home Monday — and when Tarpley asked him why he was there, he said he came to pick up a stove he bought online. But Myers wasn’t selling a stove, so Tarpley told the man to leave before the police were called. 

“We might have stopped something right dead in its tracks, because I was a nosy neighbor,” Tarpley said. “As a community, as neighbors, we have got to speak up for each other. Know your neighbor, love your neighbor as yourself.”