Woman calls 911, 'orders pizza' to signal domestic violence

OREGON, Ohio -- A victim's daughter called 911 to "order a pizza" as a clever way to covertly alert police of an alleged domestic violence situation.

The woman told WTVG that she called 911 because a man was hitting her mom but used this tactic so he couldn't plan to run away from police.

At first, Oregon, Ohio, 911 dispatcher Tim Teneyck seemed confused by the request.

"This is the wrong number to call for a pizza," Teneyck said.

"No no no. You're not understanding me," the woman responded.

Teneyck said he's answered many domestic violence calls in his 14 years of service but this one was out of the ordinary.

"You see it on Facebook, but it's not something that anybody has ever been trained for. We're just trained to listen," he said.

Yet he said his intuition soon kicked in.

"Is the other guy still there?" he asked.

"Yep. I need a large pizza," the caller responded.

"Alright. How about medical. You need medical?" he said.

"No. With pepperoni," she said.

Police soon arrived at the scene and the man, Simon Lopez, was arrested and charged.

Oregon Police Chief Michael Navarre said in his 42 years of service, he's never heard anyone use a pizza order as code to indicate domestic violence but coming up with code in this sort of situation was the right thing to do.

"Somehow or another, convey to that police dispatcher that you are in trouble, and this woman did that. She did that not with her words, but with the tone of her voice," he said.