In moments of extreme hyperbole, most of us have probably said that we were so hungry, we could die, or something to that effect. In the case of one San Jose, Calif. man, though, his hunger in essence saved his life.
According to Metro UK, a man on an overpass was threatening to jump to his death. The California Highway Patrol (CHiPs!) spent five hours using tactics ranging from officer-led conversations to professional negotiators trying to lure the man down, all to no effect. That’s when Sergeant Chris Sciba (I’m imagining an Erik Estrada-type) pulled a play from deep in the CHP handbook, PIZZA. Using a Northrup Grumman Remotec Andros F6A bomb disposal robot with a phone attached, a pizza was remote-control delivered to the desperate jumper. According to Officer Sciba, the reasoning was actually pretty simple:
‘[Because] delivering food is a way of encouraging someone to do something we want them to do, we sent pizza with [the] phone,’ said police sergeant Chris Sciba.
‘We [instructed the subject] that if he wanted the pizza released, to pick up the phone.
‘The robot was holding the pizza, it released the pizza once the subject picked up [the] phone to talk to negotiators.’
Thirty minutes after the robot-delivered pie was sent, the standoff was over, and the man was taken into custody. Hats off to the CHP for thinking outside the box to save a life. Fake TV officers Frank Poncherello and Jon Baker would be proud.
Source: Metro UK