Pizza delivery man attacked, robbed of pizzas in Whangarei

A 64-year-old pizza delivery driver was robbed while delivering pizzas in Whangarei at night. PHOTO/JOHN STONE

A Northland businessman has described an attack on an employee who was out delivering pizzas at night as "pretty senseless".

Jayesh Madhav, owner of Domino's franchise in Whangarei and Dargaville, said there was no gain in robbing a pizza delivery man doing his job.

The Whangarei employee, a 64-year-old, is unsure whether he wants to go back to work after the traumatic experience on First Ave about 9.30pm on Thursday.

He said two men jumped out from behind a tree, pushed him and stole the pizza bag that had three to four pizzas in it.

"The cretins robbed me, the gutless little huas. I dropped my guard. It was a dark place and I shouldn't have got out of the car," said the man who preferred to remain anonymous.

He said what happened was not Domino's fault because the company drummed it into deliverers to stay alert and be wary of dark places.

"Funny side is the guys had to use their cellphone to order the pizzas so cops might get them that way. (They) didn't get my money bag or car but did get a bit of my pride.

"I've been expecting this for some time. Now I'm traumatised. I'm still contemplating whether to even go back to work," he said.

His boss said Domino's took the safety of its employees seriously.

"We call back our customers to check they are genuine and we also train our drivers what to do in those situation but anything can happen out of the blue no matter how prepared you are," Mr Madhav said.

He said there had been instances where his staff did not deliver pizzas if they did not feel safe.

"There's always a risk in anything one does in life. A person can walk down the road and get robbed. We are not negligent in our responsibility towards the safety of our staff," Mr Madhav said.

The robbed staff member has been given time off work and other assistance such as counselling would be made available should he wish to take it up, he said.

"It was a pretty senseless attack. There's no gain really in what those people did to the delivery man."

Whangarei police confirmed an investigation was underway.