A Florida mother being held hostage at knife point by her boyfriend managed to call for help using a pizza-delivery app, police said.
Cheryl Treadway convinced her boyfriend to let her use her phone to order from Pizza Hut, police told NBC station WFLA on Tuesday. But as well as requesting a small hand-tossed classic pizza with pepperoni, Treadway also wrote "911 hostage help" in the order's comments — prompting the Pizza Hut to call the authorities.
Police responded to the pizza chain and to Treadway's home in Highlands County after she made the order on Monday, at which point she ran outside holding a small child. Treadway's boyfriend, 26-year-old Ethan Earl Nickerson, was persuaded to come outside peacefully and her other two children were unharmed, police said.
"We've never seen that before," Candy Hamilton, manager of the restaurant that took the order, told WFLA. "I've been here 28 years and never, never seen nothing like that come through."
Nickerson was charged with aggravated assault with a weapon, battery, false imprisonment and obstructing justice by depriving communication to law enforcement, WFLA reported.