Life can be dangerous for pizza delivery drivers, who are often carrying cash and food and rarely have anyone to protect them. Now a Pizza Hut employee in Maryland says he’s been pulled off deliveries because he used a tent pole to defend himself against a group of attackers.

The man, a college student, tells FOX45 in Baltimore that he was getting out of his car at a delivery when he had the feeling that something was off about the situation. So he slid the fiberglass pole up his coat sleeve just in case he needed it.

Which he did.

“He sucker-punched me,” says the driver about the attack that ensued. “My glasses flew off.”

He says he then slid the tent pole from out of his sleeve and swatted at the attackers while covering his face.

“Five against one is not a good situation to be in,” explains the driver. “I thought that I was about to die.”

The alleged attackers fled without the driver’s cash or the pizza and three of the suspects (all juveniles) were arrested, but the Pizza Hut employee says that his use of the tent pole apparently violated company policy against drivers carrying weapons.

Since the attack, he’s been kept on kitchen duty, where he says he’s making less money. He also says his hours at the Hut have been cut.

“I’m not saying we should arm all delivery drivers,” explains the employee, “but I’m saying that punishing delivery drivers for defending themselves as they’re being attacked is unjust.”

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