GARY, Ind. – Anthony Herbert Lee must have hoped more than 13 tons of frozen pizza would have him rolling in dough. Instead, he was cooling his heels behind bars.
Lee, 38, of Hammond, was arrested Saturday for trying to sell 26,652 pounds of stolen pizza worth more than $45,000, Indiana State Police said.
A company had contracted with Lee to pick up 3,000 cases of Stouffer's frozen pizzas from Nation Pizza in Schaumburg, Ill., on Aug. 31 and deliver them to Springville, Utah.
After having motor trouble and realizing he wouldn't make the delivery date, contacted Transportation Salvage of Rockford, Ill., and tried to broker a deal, but the salvage company smelled something wrong with the deal. It checked out the load and found it actually belonged to Stouffer's parent company, Nestle Corp.
Indiana State Police were called in and Detective Brian Schnick, posing as a representative of the salvage company, met Lee at the Gary truck garage where Lee had taken his tractor. When Lee tried to flee, Schnick arrested him. Lee was being held Sunday at the Lake County Jail on a 10-year-old warrant out of Hobart for larceny.
The refrigerated trailer was located and the pizzas were recovered, police said.
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