Pizza delivery drivers' safety questioned after Cherry Brook robbery

A Halifax-area pizzeria owner is looking at ways to protect his delivery drivers after a driver of another store was robbed at gunpoint in Cherry Brook on Saturday night.

John Chidiac, the co-owner of Anapolie Pizza in Cole Harbour, said after hearing about the robbery he's decided to be more careful with delivery calls from new customers.

"What's the most amount of money a driver's going to carry? At most $50," Chidiac said. "To cause [harm to] somebody's safety for $50 — I don't feel it's right."

On Saturday, a driver for Tasty Pizza in Dartmouth delivered to an address on Cherry Brook Road. Two masked men robbed him with a shotgun, said Nova Scotia RCMP. He was not hurt.

Last year, a delivery driver was shot in the buttocks on Jamieson Street in Dartmouth.

Chidiac says it's the store owner's responsibility to help keep delivery drivers safe. He says he tries to limit the amount of cash and the number of pizzas a delivery driver carries.

"It's a rather safe area that we deliver to and we've delivered to the same area for the last 30 years," Chidiac said.

"I wouldn't take my driver and let him out in the middle of a snowstorm, so I'd want him to be safe in a regular day, taking to a safer area. I'd want to control the areas that they deliver to."

Halifax RCMP Cpl. Greg Church says the suspects from Saturday's robbery haven't been found.

"One of the men held the delivery man down, while the other searched his vehicle," he said.

"The culprits eventually made off with money, the debit machine inside the car, as well as the bag which contained, of course, pizza."

The owners of Tasty Pizza say their driver will return to work soon.