Teen threatened shooting over ice cream, restaurant owner says
BALTIMORE (WBFF) - A Baltimore pizza shop owner says a teenage customer damaged his door and threatened to shoot him because he couldn’t get free ice cream.
Will Fagg, a military veteran and self-described pizza nerd, owns Tiny Brick Oven, a small pizza store in Baltimore’s Federal Hill neighborhood. The store is known for giving away free food.
“I enjoyed serving the country, and now, I enjoy serving my community,” Fagg said.
Fagg started a pay-it-forward pizza program that turns $9 donations into sticky notes that those in need can exchange for a free lunch. But the shop owner says that for one teenage customer, free pizza apparently wasn’t enough.
“He basically just asked some customers in here to buy some stuff for him, and you know, we have free food already,” Fagg said.
The shop owner says the teen’s demands for free ice cream quickly rose to harassment and, eventually, threats of violence, even going as far as saying he was going to shoot Fagg.
“It did trigger sort of a different mindset as a veteran who is now thinking about the potentiality of firearms being involved,” Fagg said.
The teenager was kicked out and locked out of the store, but Fagg says the teen then took his anger out on the door, delivering several blows and shattering the glass.
The incident comes amid an uptick in young people committing crimes across the city. Fagg considers this incident minor but is updating his broken security cameras, knowing there’s a chance this teen or another could strike again.
“Things could have ended up much, much worse,” Fagg said.
In the meantime, Fagg says the response from the community is helping keep his mind off the disturbing incident.
“It was just message after message. Everyone was worried about me,” he said. “They offered to pay for the window. I mean, you name it. Donations have rolled in for our pay-it-forward program. It’s been overwhelmingly positive.”
Fagg reported the incident to the police, who he says are still searching for the suspect.
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