Awesome - A Delivery Man Saw A Woman Mouth Three Words, Then He Jumped Into Action
Everything is going as normal for delivery guy Joey Grundl: it’s just another day. He is taking a pizza to this lady in Waldo, Wisconsin. But after he has knocked on her door, it swings open, and then he sees something that leaves him openmouthed. It looks dangerous, but Joey isn’t just going to turn and run.
Shock to the system
Sounds intense, right? It was certainly a shocking moment for Joey, who was working for the local Domino’s Pizza at the time of the incident. He’d been delivering food for the pizza giant for around two years, but nothing during that spell could’ve prepared him for what he saw at the Waldo residence.
“I don’t really expect anything”
To shed a bit more light on that, Joey spoke to CBS 58 in October 2018. He told the news station, “I don’t really expect anything [when I make deliveries]. I just kinda expect to show up, and leave.” Given that he made between 15 and 20 stops each shift without any major incidents, you can understand why this one caught him off guard!
Envious?
But here’s the thing, folks — up until Joey knocked on that door in Waldo, certain pizza delivery drivers would’ve looked at this guy in envy. Why? Simple, really. It’s a job that can get pretty strange at times, as you never know what might be waiting for you at each location. He’d been lucky compared to others.
Strange deliveries
Don’t believe us? Well, on the AskReddit subreddit, a number of pizza delivery employees came together to recount some of their most bizarre dropoffs. Apparently, delivering a pizza isn't always as easy as ringing a doorbell.
“Alarms immediately went off”
One user recalled, “[A] lady asked me if I’d take the pizza into the basement. Alarms immediately went off in my head. I politely tried to get out of that request, stating we were busy and making excuses. [But] she persisted, politely, and said she’d tip me better. I reluctantly agreed and headed into the basement.”
Unexpected adulation
“I got downstairs, and the place was packed with teenagers,” the user added. “The room exploded with energy and everyone started chanting, ‘Pizza! pizza!’ I made my way to a guy with a microphone. He asked me my name, and the crowd started chanting my name. The guy informed me that I’d just won the Pizzalympics, hung a medal around my neck, and gave me a trophy.”
A spooky drop-off
So that experience could’ve gone very differently, but the next tale ups the ante on the spooky scale. Yes, we get the feeling that this delivery driver would’ve given anything to swap places with Joey Grundl during his quieter shifts when they arrived at a trailer.
“You just walked through a ghost”
The person wrote, “I knocked on the door and a couple voices told me to come inside. When I opened the door there were weird cameras and lights pointing at me, and a man and woman sitting on a couch across the room. They asked me to bring the pizza over to them. [Then] the woman said, ‘You just walked through a ghost.’ They were amateur ghost hunters.”
A horrible fright
Yikes. Sticking with the spooky stuff, another driver recalled that they were greeted by a young girl at the door who claimed she’d been speaking to Satan. Then, before they could hand the pizza over, a guy in a Devil’s mask scared the life out of them. It was her father, in case you were curious. We hope that person got a big tip!
A message to customers
So it’s fair to say that the job isn’t without its perils. In fact, Domino’s in Australia has recognized that in the past, as the company drew up a document for consumers to read. It stemmed from the strange experiences that certain workers had to deal with when making their deliveries.
Domino’s checklist
Quite simply, it was a checklist of stuff that the delivery drivers were eager to avoid going forward. Now while terrifying pranks and weird basement gatherings probably weren’t near the top of it, a few other things did prove to be more frequent. As Joey would learn himself, not every weird pizza delivery experience is a comical one.
Nude greetings
For instance, it’s said that plenty of Domino’s workers in Australia had been greeted by naked consumers when arriving at their homes. We’re serious! That sounds incredibly uncomfortable, right? One employee shared their experience of this while speaking to the news.com.au website in March 2019. Her name is Chloe Patterson-Kane.
“A bit weird”
Chloe, who delivered pizzas for Domino’s in north Queensland, informed the site, “A lot of the time people will order a pizza and then go hop in the shower. I’ll get there, and they won’t answer the door. This means I have to call them, and they often come out in their towel, and it can be a bit weird.”
Caught in the act
That’s quite an understatement, wouldn’t you agree? And it’s not the only awkward situation that the Australian drivers found themselves in. To give you another example, some of them had the unfortunate luck to stumble upon consumers in the middle of lovemaking sessions. Oh boy. There’s nothing romantic about that!
Helping the drivers?
You get the feeling that those Domino’s workers would’ve seen Joey’s relatively uneventful shifts as a dream in comparison. But all of these bizarre stories have got us thinking — what happens if a driver is genuinely unsettled by what they see? Can their employers do anything about it?
“Domino’s has support services”
Well, Chloe gave some insight on that front during her chat with news.com.au. She noted, “If it’s really weird, we can ask to not have to deliver there anymore. And Domino’s has support services in place if a driver needs [it].” Joey Grundl probably never thought he'd end up needing to use Domino's support services…
Joey’s fateful delivery
The incident that shattered Joey’s run of straightforward, standard deliveries took place in September 2018. Just like his other dropoffs, he arrived at the house in Waldo expecting no drama. At worse, the driver might’ve feared being gypped for a tip, yet that proved to be the least of his concerns in the end.
Something wasn’t right...
So Joey knocked on a lady’s door, only for a man to greet him instead. Nothing out of the ordinary there, right? Mind you, it didn’t take the Domino’s worker long until something became very clear to him. After that, he knew he had to act fast — any kind of hesitation could’ve resulted in disaster.
“I could see a black eye”
Looking back on that moment, Joey continued his conversation with CBS 58 in October 2018. He said, “I gave the guy his pizza and behind him was a woman. I could see a black eye on her right eye, and that’s when she pointed to it and mouthed the words to me ‘Help me.’”
“Call the police”
“Shortly thereafter, [the woman] mouthed again to me ‘Call the police,’” Joey recalled. “And after the guy gave me the money for the pizza, I got in my car and started driving back to the store. And that’s when I dialed 911.” Wow. We can only imagine how tense that must’ve been for him.
What happened next?
After all, no pizza delivery driver could’ve expected to stumble across an ordeal like that. It was beyond the pale compared to the stuff we looked at earlier. Anyway, what happened after Joey called the cops? Well, they made their way to the house quite quickly, hoping that the situation hadn’t worsened.
A tense stand-off
Once the authorities got there, though, a nervy few moments ensued outside of the property. You see, the guy attempted to stop them from coming in, as he held the lady back. Understandably, she was desperate to open the door and get the help she asked for. But this standoff didn’t last too long.
Making an arrest
Yes, the man would soon give up, with the cops entering the house and taking him into custody. From there, a few more tidbits started to emerge about what had really been going on at the property before Joey got there. So we have to warn you — there’s some upsetting details on the way.
Meeting Dean Hoffmann
Let’s start with the guy — who was he? After the arrest, it came out that his name was Dean Hoffmann. Back in 2016 it’s said that he struck up a relationship with the unnamed woman, who eventually moved into his place. And the pair remained an item for roughly two years.
The end of the relationship
Yet everything changed going into the summer of 2018. At that stage, it’s believed that the long-term romance finally broke down, which resulted in the lady finding a new place to live. Just a month or so later, though, Hoffmann stormed back into her life in the most horrifying of ways.
Home invasion
As per the criminal complaint at the time, Hoffmann brazenly walked through the lady’s front door. He didn’t ask her or signal his arrival with a knock. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. From there, the records stated that the duo got into a physical tussle, as she tried to contact the authorities.
“Bound her hands together”
Hoffmann soon got the upper hand in the skirmish, ahead of striking the lady’s face. That explains the black eye, then. Meanwhile, the police records also revealed, “He then bound her hands together and her feet, hog-tying them with a power cord from her vacuum.” Her ex-partner didn’t stop there either.
Gagged
The complaint added, “[Hoffmann then] took a towel and shoved it into [the woman’s] mouth, and forced her to try to scream in order to ensure that nobody would be able to hear her.” What a terrible turn of events. It even got to the stage where the lady feared that she’d pass away due to suffocation.
It lasted for hours
Hoffmann ultimately didn’t allow that to happen, as he went on to release his former girlfriend from her binds. Mind you, he still refused to let her out of the house. Shockingly, this ordeal spanned hours, with seemingly no end in the sight. That is, until the home invader mentioned that he had a weapon with him.
A deadly threat
Yep, Hoffmann had a firearm stored in his vehicle, and apparently threatened to kill the lady as well as himself. Yet before that could happen, he placed an order at the local Domino’s. So it’s not an overstatement to say that decision might’ve prevented a horrific crime from getting even worse.
The charges
After the initial resistance, Hoffmann gave himself up to the cops willingly, which brought an end to the terrifying ordeal. As for his punishment, the home invader was hit with numerous charges. The Newsweek website reported that they included kidnapping, false imprisonment and intimidation of a victim, strangulation, and suffocation.
What happened to Joey?
And to think — all of that was made possible thanks to the keen eye of an unassuming delivery man. Talk about a jaw-dropping set of events! Speaking of Joey, what happened to him after this story came to light? Well, the Domino’s employee soon found himself in the news cycle.
Entering the news cycle...
As we already know, Joey spoke to CBS 58 in the aftermath, but he popped up on other channels too. For instance, WITI Milwaukee grabbed an interview with the heroic driver, placing him in front of the cameras. On top of that, a few different websites also covered his actions, which put him in the online spotlight.
“Pay attention”
Anyway, going back to his CBS 58 interview, Joey offered some important advice to the rest of us near the end. He told the station, “Sometimes it’s best to just pay attention to what's going on. You never know when someone maybe is trying to give you a little hint there.”
A surprising twist
You don’t just have to be a pizza delivery driver to take that on board! But how about this for a surprise? If you thought that’d be the last you’d see of Joey, we’ve got some news for you. This story still had one more remarkable twist in store, and something tells us that you’ll never be able to guess it.
The significance of Joey’s hoodie
When Joey made his appearances on the news channels, he was sporting a white hoodie with some text around the shoulders. Now for those of you who don’t know, this wasn’t a random item that he’d picked up from a clothes store. Instead, it was merchandise from a music superstar’s latest tour.
Taylor Swift
The artist in question? One Taylor Swift. Eagle-eyed followers of the singer soon realized that Joey’s hoodie was a “Reputation Tour” item, so they began to tag her in posts relating to the Domino’s driver. As that was going on, he was also set to watch her perform in Dallas, Texas, in October 2018.
A dream offer
Once Swift’s performance ended that night, Joey received an incredible offer. Yes, he was asked if he wanted to go backstage and have a chat with the star. No joke! Unsurprisingly, the Wisconsin resident accepted, and the pair went on to pose for a photo together. He looked absolutely stunned.
“One of the most exciting weeks of my life”
Then, after sharing that picture on social media, Joey summed everything up in a moving tweet. He wrote, “This has been one of the most exciting weeks of my life. I’m legitimately getting emotional, and I almost never get like this. But as the likely most memorable week of my entire life comes to an end, I guess I can really say, I’m doing better than I ever was.”
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