Linden Lowan really was not impressed with the Domino’s Pizza version of a thin crust, so much he threw slices at staff from the door and punched the manager.
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The 44-year-old had been drinking since 10am on January 16 last year and arrived at the Wangaratta pizza shop about 7pm for dinner.
He does not remember it, but appeared in Wangaratta Magistrates’ Court on Monday to plead guilty to assault and theft charges.
When the Domino’s assistant manager told the abusive Lowan to leave, the man responded by punching him twice to the head, leaving him with a swollen lip.
A male customer threw Lowan out of the shop, but he was not finished.
Still unhappy with the pizza, he smeared slices across the front window and threw them at staff, then threw 1.25-litre bottles of Coke.
Lowan told police “first in, best dressed so bad luck, he got in my face”.
Three days earlier, he had also left Woolworths staff shaken when he reached over a register and snatched $900 in cash from the till.
“It was a spur of the moment thing, I grabbed it with my right hand and ran off,” Lowan told police.
“It was the most stupid thing I’ve ever done.”
He was trying to retrieve $340 he lost at the pokies that day, but went back to Wangaratta Club after the theft and only had $688.40 of the stolen money remaining when police arrived to arrest him.
Barrister Allison Vaughan said Lowan was in the midst of an ice addiction and admitted it was “outrageous” behaviour. “It was effectively a bit of a rampage over a couple of days,” she said.
Lowan checked into drug rehabilitation in Sydney five days later.
Magistrate Ian Watkins fined him $1400, plus ordered he pay businesses for the stolen cash and damage.
“Your behaviour would have been frightening,” he said.
“Pizza parlours usually employ young staff … your behaviour will be with them forever.”
