Senator Turned Pizza Delivery Guy for a Day Fends Off Attackers

HARVEY, IL — Four men looking to pounce on a pizza delivery guy recently got more than they bargained for when they opened the door.

State Sen. Napoleon Harris (D-Harvey) — who also owns two Beggars Pizza restaurants in Oak Forest and Harvey — decided he'd help out his delivery drivers earlier this month by getting behind the wheel himself.

Harris arrived with a delivery to a vacant house (which is up for sale) at 158th Street and Paulina Avenue in Harvey, and found himself the target of the men's attack. But they probably weren't expecting a 6-foot-3, 250-pound former NFL linebacker.

"This wasn't the average 5-foot-9 delivery guy," his spokesman Sean Howard told CBS.

They attempted a chokehold on the 37-year-old former member of the Minnesota Vikings, Kansas City Chiefs and Oakland Raiders.

"They really were trying to choke him to death," Howard told CBS. One guy then hit Harris with his best shot, and Harris "just looked at him like Hulk Hogan."

And then, they ran.

But Harris wasn't letting them get away. He called 911, hopped in his truck and pursued their Chevy Tahoe from a distance. He told police exactly where they were heading — a lumber yard in South Holland — where the attackers abandoned the car and took off.

Here's where the plot gets even more movie-esque. Police found blood inside the back of the truck, which was registered to a man who had been reported missing in Fulton County, Georgia, CBS reports. He was later found dead — the blood in the truck proved to be his.

With that evidence, and with Harris' descriptions of the men, police tracked down the suspects. Two were stopped as they were stepping off a Megabus from Chicago. A third was found at a Georgia mental institution where he had checked himself in. A fourth man, who hails from Gary, Indiana, was held for 72 hours but later released. He has not yet been charged, but is likely to be charged in relation to the attack.

Harris, who is a licensed concealed carry holder, did not have his gun with him at the time of the attack. Howard said his children were with him in the car earlier that day, and he was not comfortable having a gun in their presence.

photo: Napoleon Harris campaign