Erik Nauman slowed his car when he saw the yellow police tape stretched across the sidewalk. Nauman, a 19-year-old sophomore at Syracuse University and part-time delivery worker for the Cosmo Pizza Shop, had heard about the Jan. 20 murder of 27-year-old Simeon Popov the night before while at a party.

Like Nauman, Popov was a student and delivered part time. Popov was murdered while delivering chicken wings to an apartment at 324 Ostrom Ave. The 27-year-old graduate student from Bulgaria walked in on an armed robbery in progress and was shot in the head as he turned to leave.

As Nauman pulled into the parking lot at 322 Ostrom Ave., he glanced over at the apartment complex next door. The yellow tape extended to the apartment which he had entered six or seven times. Suddenly, it hit him: He pieced together what had happened one night earlier. He realized another thing too.

It could have been him.

‘I didn’t put it together until I got there,’ Nauman said. ‘I’ve been there a bunch of times. I kept on thinking what it would be like to open that door. They’ve got this really cool dog. I’d go over, play with it for a while. If it happened a week earlier it could have been me. I just try not to think about it.’

One thing Nauman doesn’t seem to realize, however, is that he is working the third most dangerous job in the country. According to U.S. Department of Labor Statistics, delivery service ranks third in the number of fatalities because of homicide — just behind taxi cab drivers and police officers. High-profile murder cases involving delivery workers have occurred in Bristol, Conn., Trenton, N.J., Schenectady, N.Y. and New York City during the past year. Sgt. Tom Connellan said the Syracuse police department investigates about six armed robberies of delivery workers each year.

‘They’re just easy prey,’ Connellan said. ‘You can call them up and have them meet you wherever you want them to.’

Senior Ben Baruch spent the evenings of Jan. 20 and 21 delivering pizza for Pizza Jerks. The 21-year-old’s long black hair curls past his shoulders. Tight black pants and large silver earrings give off the impression of a rock-star or a biker.

Baruch, who has held the job at Pizza Jerks for more than a year-and-a-half, has done a lot of thinking during the past few days.

‘I try to picture myself going to work,’ Baruch said. ‘Going in for the last night I’ll ever work and how I’d approach it differently. I’ll tell you another thing I think about. I think about how much your life is in everyone else’s hands and not your own. What you do really doesn’t determine whether you live or die, it’s what other people do.’

Baruch, Nauman and Chris Sower, a delivery worker for Pita Pit, have done their thinking. But none of them seems to be thinking about what really matters — how often it happens and how to stop it from happening again.

‘It doesn’t really surprise me,’ said Quinto Rovetto, manager of Pizza Jerks. ‘In small towns, yes. I worked in one for 30 years with no problems. But in cities, I can see it being a problem.’

Although residents of off-campus housing have clamored for safer streets and more police patrols, the majority of those involved in the delivery service remain unconcerned.

For many, Marshall Street is the ideal late-night snack stop. The street features four options for delivery- Pita Pit, Pizza Jerks, the Cosmo Pizza Shop and Acropolis Pizza House. Managers for all four restaurants said no employees had quit because they were concerned about personal safety and that, although the number of deliveries dropped the night following Popov’s death, business has returned to normal.

Employees, managers and the police all seem to believe the incident was a chance occurrence and the result of ‘being in the wrong place, at the wrong time.’

‘What are the chances of that happening,’ Nauman said. ‘You walk in on a robbery already in progress? And it still doesn’t make sense. Why’d they open the door if they knew it was a delivery guy? Why’d they only shoot him?’

Most Marshall Street managers said they feel their drivers are safer than those working elsewhere, such as Dorian’s located on Westcott Street, because nearly all deliveries are made within the Syracuse campus area and delivered to students.

Neither Baruch (two years of service), Sower (one year), nor Nauman (two-and-a-half years in the business) have been robbed during their careers as pizza or pita deliverers. Of the drivers, only Sower has shown serious concerns since the incident.

Since Popov’s death, Sower has refused to travel outside the Syracuse campus area, while the rest of the establishments are reconsidering what locations are worth delivering to. Of the greatest concern are the Westcott Street and East Genesee Street areas. Managers of all four restaurants said ensuring the safety of employees in these ‘rough neighborhoods’ can be a major problem.

Nauman’s manager screens each delivery order and refuses to deliver to East Genesee Street and certain apartments in the Westcott area.

‘He takes care of me,’ Nauman said. ‘He’s been here a lot longer than I have. He’s lived in the area for a long time so he knows all the trouble spots.’

Yannis Koulouris has taken his caution one step further. The manager of the Acropolis Pizza House for the past five years is considering canceling his delivery service altogether. Unlike the majority of the restaurants on Marshall Street, Acropolis is mainly a dine-in restaurant. Koulouris says he receives about 20 take-out calls a week. Unlike other restaurants, canceling deliveries is economically feasible for Koulouris.

‘It’s a serious consideration,’ he said. ‘We don’t make much doing it and to tell you the truth, if people are getting killed it’s not worth it to me to have it.’

Besides adjusting or canceling service, managers and delivery workers cite common sense as the only way to avoid violent confrontations. Drivers are reminded not to carry large amounts of money, to park in well-lighted areas and if necessary, to leave the car running so they can leave without fumbling for keys.

Because of the practicality of these solutions, store managers from the four restaurants said they give less than an hour of training to each individual. Each employee, however, is reminded that if he or she gets into a situation similar to Popov’s, he or she should listen to the robber’s demands, give up all the money, come back to the store and report the crime immediately.

The training, while it may seem insufficient to some, is standard throughout the industry, said Pita Pit manager Kim Sill.

‘We just want them to come back alive if anything happens,’ Sill said. ‘Just tell us what happened and get back in one piece.’

She also noted that she doesn’t believe restaurants can be held liable to pay for injury because of a lack of training in emergency situations.

Lawyer Peter Catalano agreed. The lawyer for the Alexander & Catalano firm practiced in Utica before moving to Syracuse. Although he has filed a number of claims against restaurants for allowing delivery workers to operate unsafe vehicles or drive without a license, he said charging a restaurant with liability because of a lack of training would not make a very good case.

‘It would make an interesting case, but a difficult one,’ Catalano said. ‘I’ve never heard of it being tried before. With all the times these types of murders have occurred that is a little surprising. If it’s an industry standard you’d have a real tough time arguing it.’

There have been other potential solutions tossed around by managers in recent days, but none have taken action yet. One of the most promising solutions: cell phones.

Delivery workers are encouraged to use cell phones to call customers who live in apartments, asking them to pick up their pizzas in the parking lot. By doing this, delivery workers wouldn’t face the danger of entering a strange apartment. This option, however, is currently limited to workers who already own cell phones.

Managers said providing employees with cell phones while at work is an improvement that has been discussed in the past, but would not venture a guess as to whether it would be implemented.

They insist that to really ensure delivery worker’s protection, increased police protection is needed.

‘You’re really helpless out there,’ Sill said. ‘What you really need is more police. I know there are only so many of them, but when have you seen one in this area?’

Since Popov’s murder, police in the Syracuse area have increased security around the campus. A new walking beat has been instituted on Comstock Avenue and Ostrom Avenue, Connellan said. This, however, had been done more in order to quell fears over the short term than in the long run. SU spokesman Kevin Morrow said earlier that the added security would continue until the end of January. Both said that crime around the Syracuse is decreasing, contrary to what many students believe.

Because of concern among their tenants, Syracuse landlords have put together a fund that would continue that surveillance, for four hours a night between Thursday and Sunday. Police would not disclose which hours the streets will be patrolled.

But according to delivery workers, even that might not be enough.

‘They really can’t do anything,’ Rivetto said. ‘Maybe you could stop it if you had a police officer on every corner…maybe.’

‘I just try not to think about it. I need the money so what else can I do?” said Brauch. “There’s nothing they can do to make it safer. Just go and pray.’

Published on February 6, 2002 at 12:00 pm