...eat pizza and drink wine at knifepoint.  

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Police: Hitchhiker forced to eat at knifepoint
Thursday, March 16, 2006
By DAVID FERRARA
Staff Reporter

A Tennessee man faces kidnapping charges after police said Wednesday that he took a hitchhiker to a Robertsdale convenience store and forced him to eat pizza and drink wine at knifepoint.

Timothy Lee Hagewood, 42, of Clarksville Tenn., was charged with second-degree kidnapping and resisting arrest after the incident Tuesday evening.

Hagewood picked up Billy Watson, 35, of Jacksonville, Fla., somewhere along Interstate 10 in Mobile, according to Robertsdale Police Investigator Anthony Dobson. Watson entered Hagewood's Dodge pickup truck voluntarily and was apparently headed back to Florida.

The victim told police Hagewood had driven around the Baldwin County area before arriving in Robertsdale. They pulled into the Pride Express Food Mart, on U.S. 90, around 6 p.m. Tuesday.

Suddenly, Hagewood demanded that Watson sit down on the floor of the convenience store and eat ready-made pizza, the investigator said. Police believe Hagewood was drunk at the time, according to Dobson.

At one point, Hagewood offered a clerk $40 for a bag of ice and a soda and refused any change, Dobson said.

Hagewood then pulled a 5-inch knife from his pocket and pressed it against Watson's stomach, Dobson said.

Later, Hagewood opened a bottle of wine by breaking its tip over a table, took swigs, and told Watson, "Don't get up or I'll cut you," according to Dobson.

Watson ate some pizza and drank wine "for a moment, to pacify (Hagewood) and to calm him down," Dobson said.

Along with at least four other patrons, two workers were inside at the time of the alleged incident. Each person escaped safely and the workers called police.

Hagewood never threatened either store clerk or the several patrons inside the business at the time, according to the investigator.

"They knew something was up when he put it (the knife) to the guy's stomach, so they got out," Dobson said.

A security camera showed Hagewood step behind the counter at some point, but Dobson said it was unclear what Hagewood did in that area of the store.

Hagewood and Watson were inside the store for about 10 minutes before police showed up, according to Dobson.

When officers arrived, Hagewood tried to walk toward a billiard room in the rear of the store. One officer told Hagewood at least four times to lie on the floor. When he did not respond, the officer used a Taser, which uses an electrical charge to immobilize the suspect, Dobson said.

Neither Watson nor anyone else inside the store was hurt during the incident, the officer said.

"I've been doing this 11 years, and I've never run across anything like that -- I've never seen anybody hold anybody at knifepoint and demand that they drink wine and eat pizza," Dobson said.

Hagewood, who was being held in the Baldwin County Corrections Center in Bay Minette on $16,000 bond, faces between two and 20 years in prison if convicted of the felony kidnapping charge.

The lesson, Dobson said, is "Don't hitchhike. You never know who you're getting in the car with."

Wine with pizza? They should hang him. Everyone knows it's beer with pizza.  

That's some funny shit right there