When Misty Laska opened her take-out pizza, the first thing she noticed was that it wasn’t cut.
Then she and her husband saw that the pepperoni pieces had been arranged in a swastika.
When they realized what it was, the couple, from Middleburg Heights, Ohio, was “silent,” he told Reuters after posting a photo on social media of the pizza, which he said came from Little Caesars.
Extremely angry at the Nazi symbol, they tried to return the pizza but got no response when they called the store, which had closed. Little Caesars, the third largest pizza chain in the world, contacted them the next day to apologize.
“We have zero tolerance for racism and discrimination in any form, and these franchise employees were immediately fired,” Little Caesars said in response to a request for comment. “This conduct is completely against our values.”
Laska said the company had told him that its employees had admitted to making the pizza as a joke and that it was never supposed to be sold. Her husband Jason had bought the pizza, which had already been prepared, just before closing.
She said she felt that firing the employees was not a satisfactory step given the severity of the “joke”, but she was not sure what other action she and Jason might have taken.
“This kind of hate that spreads and is not taken seriously is the reason the world is dividing,” he added.
“In today’s climate, a gesture like that is completely unacceptable … I hope the two leaders learn a valuable lesson from this. Spread love, not hate.”
