Chilling moment delivery driver saves woman held hostage by customer
A hero pizza delivery driver helped save a woman who was allegedly held hostage by her abusive ex-partner who threatened to shoot them both.
Dean Hoffmann, 55, faces various domestic abuse charges after he entered his ex-girlfriend’s home uninvited about 1pm last Thursday and refused to leave, according to police.
The 57-year-old victim told Hoffmann to leave her home in Wisconsin, US, and when he refused she grabbed her phone to call police, but Hoffmann allegedly snatched it from her hands.
WTKR TV reports he allegedly pushed the woman, who fell backwards onto stairs, then Hoffmann pulled her hair, ripped her shirt and tried to drag her up the stairs.
The woman told investigators she hit Hoffmann in the groin in attempt to get away, but he then punched her in the face, giving her a black eye and bloody nose.
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Prosecutors say Hoffmann then hog-tied the woman’s hands and feet with a vacuum cleaner power cord, then shoved a towel in her mouth to keep her quiet, which caused her breathing trouble.
She told investigators he threatened to shoot them both dead, and she feared for her life.
Hoffmann untied her about 30 minutes later but would not let her leave her own house, she said.
A decision to order a pizza was vital in the woman’s rescue.
When Domino’s Pizza driver Joey Grundl dropped off a delivery to the home in Sheboygan County, he noticed the distressed woman inside trying to get his attention and he called 911.
“It’s kind of scary,” he told WTKR TV news.
“Gave him his pizza, and noticed behind him was his girlfriend. She pointed to a black eye that was quite visible. She mouthed the words ‘help me’.”
He told the operator: “I had a delivery. It was a middle-aged couple. The woman clearly had a black eye. She pointed to it, and I swear she mouthed ‘help me.'”
Police arrested Hoffmann, who now faces charges of kidnapping, false imprisonment, strangulation and suffocation, felony intimidation of a victim and burglary of a building.
