DELTONA, Fla. – A 61-year-old woman is facing charges after an employee at a Deltona pizza restaurant said the woman threw hot pizza on her, hitting both of her arms, according to the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office.
The victim, who works at I Love New York Pizza on Elkcam Boulevard, said that Sunday night, she finished fixing a pizza order that had not been made the way the customer, Leslie Vermilio, said she wanted it; Vermilio became angry and started causing a disturbance in the restaurant, according to the report.
"I would never treat my customers that way. I make things right," owner Giuseppina Frigolino said.
Video shows Vermilio, who was at the restaurant with her son, throw a pizza box across the counter, the report said.
The victim told authorities that the hot contents flew out of the box and hit her on both arms.
Vermilio and her son immediately left the restaurant, so the victim followed them out and took down the license plate information from Vermilio’s vehicle, deputies said.
When deputies arrived at Vermilio’s home to ask her about the incident, she told them that her son went to pick up a pizza from the restaurant and found that it had been made incorrectly, according to the report.
Vermilio told deputies she complained about the order, and then received the pizza made incorrectly again, which is when she went to confront the manager about her order, the report said.
"She says, 'Ma'am, the small pizza doesn't have the three toppings. It's just a bianca.' I said, 'It was a human mistake. I'm really, really sorry, I will fix it,'" Frigolino said.
Vermilio told deputies that when she asked the manager about the order, the manager became argumentative and rude, so she just slid the pizza across the counter and left.
"She starts saying something and I said, 'I'm respecting you. I want the same respect back,'" Frigolino said. "As soon as I said that word, she opens up the small box and just throws it at me with the intent of burning me."
Investigators reviewed surveillance video from inside the restaurant that they said showed Vermilio forcefully throwing the pizza box at the victim, and Vermilio was arrested and charged with battery, according to the report.
"We've been here 13 years with my kids," Frigolino said. "We love people. We love making people happy with food. That's it."
The victim refused medical treatment following the incident, the report said.