How A Man Got Stuck Inside A Little Caesars Oven Vent

There are some mental images so vivid they just stick with you once conjured. Think: Santa getting caught in the chimney, a fluffy pet hamster getting adorably stuck in a paper towel tube, or someone (a burglar, say) getting trapped in a Little Caesars oven vent. Wait, what was that last one? It turns out that sometimes the truth can be stranger than fiction, as evidenced by a recent story reported by Newsweek.

This isn't the first unusual criminal activity to occur at the pizza chain. Unfortunately, more than one person has died in or at a Little Caesars, including one victim of homicide in San Antonio, Texas, in 2022 (via News 4 San Antonio), and another who was killed at a restaurant in Wichita Falls, Texas, in 2017 (via TexomasHomepage.com). Thankfully, the alleged criminal in Georgia who got stuck in the Little Caesars oven vent was stopped before anything truly tragic happened, but how the heck did he get in there in the first place?

According to the Dekalb County Fire Rescue Department on Facebook, the suspected burglar really did act like a Santa, albeit one with devious intentions. The man in question gained access to the roof of a Little Caesars restaurant in Lithonia, Georgia, on July 13. Then he slipped down an oven vent in an attempt to get into the building, a la Kris Kringle. Instead, he got stuck. If it wasn't for the keen ear of an Army recruiter working next door who heard the man crying out for help, Little Caesars customers might have been treated to some mighty strange-tasting Hot-N-Ready pizza that day.

Instead, first responders were called to the scene to extract the man, who was brought to the hospital to be treated for his injuries and was later charged with criminal attempted burglary (via Newsweek). Thankfully, only the suspect was injured, and now that the person in question has been rescued and charged, people in the comments of the police department's Facebook post were ready to joke about what happened. "Someone really wanted pizza," said one commenter. "So, he heard it was Grab N Go night at Little Caesars?" asked another. One person even questioned the alleged thief's television taste — or lack thereof. "If he watched 'Emergency,' he would have know this had been tried and failed," they joked.