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In November 2021, a Tennessee man tried threatening Little Caesars' employees with a gun because he felt his pepperoni pizza order was taking too long. It wasn't any small pistol the man threatened the workers with; it was an AK-47. The incident occurred at the Little Caesars on Cedar Bluff Road in Knoxville, Tennessee.
The man, identified as Charles Doty Jr., was arrested in the same month. Almost two years after the arrest, on August 23, 2023, the Tennessee man finally pled guilty to four counts of aggravated assault. He is scheduled to be sentenced on September 29.
Tennessee man tries speeding up Pizza making process with the help of an assault rifle
The Little Caesars' tagline states that they provide "Hot N' Ready" Pizzas to their valued customers, but Tennessee's Mr. Charles Doty Jr. was not impressed with that phrase.
In November 2021, Charles Doty Jr., a Tennessee man, visited the Little Caesars on Cedar Bluff Road and ordered a pepperoni pie. All was well until a staffer told him the pizza might take 10 minutes to get ready. This did not sit well with Mr. Charles Doty Jr.
Little Ceasars' employee, Kimberleigh Murrell, told WATE that Charles started getting agitated and demanded breadsticks.
The Tennessee man walked out the door to wait and returned with an AK-47. It was Kimberleigh Murrell's first day at the job, working with her boyfriend, Noah Beeler. She was taking care of a customer when Charles came storming in with the gun.
"He comes in, the gun is pointed like this, held down a little bit. Then I look at it. My eyes drop to the gun. And he literally pulls it up, points it at me, semi-points at her (the customer), and says, ‘Where is my pizza? I want my pizza now,'" Murrell told WATE.
Kimbrleigh rushed back to the store to Beeler, who came out to ask the man what was going through his head. Escalation was avoided when another customer gave the man her pizza, after which he left. Charles was later arrested. He was charged with four counts of aggravated assault and one count of aggravated kidnapping.
"I never expected somebody to come in over a $6 pizza that you paid for with a gun," Murrel told WATE.
According to The Smoking Gun, Charles Doty Jr. pled guilty to four counts of aggravated assault on August 23, 2023, almost two years after the incident.
A prosecution spokesperson told the outlet that the Tennessee man's "blind plea" meant that the "length and manner of service" of Charles Doty Jr.'s sentence would be resolved by a Criminal Court. He is scheduled to be sentenced on September 29.
Established in 1959 in Garden City, Michigan, as "Little Caesars Pizza Treat," Little Caesars was once a small Pizza place, born from the efforts and life savings of founders Mike and Marian Ilitch. Little Caesars now commands a pizza chain empire, only behind Pizza Hut and Dominoes, according to statistics from 2020.
