Florida Mother Held Hostage in Domestic Violence Situation Writes Plea into Online Pizza Hut Order
In an astonishing plea for help, a woman in Florida, who was being held hostage in a domestic violence situation with her three children, managed to outsmart her boyfriend who was holding her hostage by placing an online order with Pizza Hut, and including the following note with the order “Please help. Get 911 to me.”
On Tuesday, May 5th, Cheryl Treadway was being held hostage by her boyfriend, with her three children, but managed to find a creative way to get out of the domestic violence situation by convincing abuser Ethan Nickerson that she wanted to get pizza. Nickerson was armed with a knife and had taken Treadway’s phone away from her, and refused to allow her or her children to leave the house for days.
Treadway convinced Nickerson to give her phone back for a short period so she could place the order to Pizza Hut. While placing the order, Treadway wrote in the comments section, “Please help. Get 911 to me.”
The restaurant branch’s manager, Candy Hamilton, recognized the name and address as a frequent customer.
“It said ‘Please help! Get 911 to me.’ And she placed a pizza order and then down here it said, ‘911 hostage help,” said Hamilton. “I’ve been here 28 years and never, never seen nothing like that come through.”
The message was originally spotted by pizza Chef Alonia Hawk. Employees immediately called 911.
“I don’t know if I ever would have thought of it. I mean it’s just something that she did so naturally,” Lt. Curtis Ludden told WFLA of the mom’s shrewd move. “The boyfriend never knew about it until he saw us coming around the corner.”
Treadway escaped with one of her children, but two others stayed inside the house with their father, Nickerson. However, hostage negotiators and police officers arrested Nickerson 20 minutes later without incident.
Nickerson has been charged with domestic violence-related charges including aggravated assault with a weapon without intent to kill, battery, false imprisonment, and obstructing justice by depriving communication to law enforcement.
“This was obviously an unusual and unexpected use of our online ordering message system, but we are extremely proud of our team members for taking it seriously and contacting the police,” Pizza Hut’s director of public relations, Doug Terfehr, told The Huffington Post. “This was a tremendous example of someone showing attention and care for the people in their community.”
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