Pizza pay-off?
D.A.: Pizzeria worker bribed undercover health inspector.
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A SAUCY PIZZA shop employee with pie-in-the-sky hopes bribed an undercover worker from the Inspector General's Office to pass health inspections at two of the pizzeria's locations earlier this year, according to the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office.
Adolfo Delacruz, 35, an employee of Stacy's Pizzeria, which has locations on Market Street near 42nd in West Philadelphia and on Drexel Road near Haverford Avenue in Overbrook Park, has been charged with two counts of bribery.
An employee with the Inspector General's Office who was wired as part of the investigation posed as a health inspector and visited the Stacy's Pizzeria location in Overbrook Park on Sept. 20.
When met at the location by Delacruz, the undercover investigator dropped the words "mouse feces" and said the restaurant had previously been given a negative inspection and that it may not pass inspection this year, prosecutors said.
That's when Delacruz allegedly offered the undercover investigator $500 to pass the inspection and to not return for a year. The fake health inspector accepted the bribe and handed over compliance paperwork to Delacruz without performing an inspection, the District Attorney's Office said.
Finding the bribe as easy as pie, Delacruz then asked the undercover investigator if he could get the same deal for the pizzeria's West Philly location, according to prosecutors.
On Oct. 8, the inspector met Delacruz at that location and again accepted $500 to give him a passing grade without conducting an inspection, the District Attorney's Office said. On top of that, Delacruz allegedly asked the undercover investigator about renewing an expired food license at the pizzeria.
In a moment of honesty amid fraud, Delacruz called the inspector after he left on Oct. 8 and told him that the bribe he'd just paid him was $20 short and he was sorry, prosecutors said. The undercover investigator told him not to worry about it.
A spokeswoman for the District Attorney's Office said the Inspector General's Office brought the case to their attention and the two agencies worked together to nab Delacruz.
The spokeswoman did not know what sparked the investigation or what title Delacruz holds at Stacy's Pizzeria.
Delacruz was not available for comment at either of the locations last night, according to employees.
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