(Not) Finding Edward Hackett
My editor gave me a single task today: Find Edward Hackett.
Well, she wasn’t quite that…intense in her direction, but you get the picture. Hackett is the 77-year old Domino’s Pizza delivery man stabbed on a false delivery call before midnight Saturday in southeast Oklahoma City. We reported today that police arrested a trio of teenagers in the attack.
Police arrested Sethe Higgins, 15, and Keith Stewart, 14, on complaints of robbery with a dangerous weapon and Marcus Smith, 18, on complaints of robbery with a dangerous weapon, assault with intent to commit a felony and conspiracy to commit a felony.
Hackett’s stab wound left his organs protruding from his abdomen, but somehow, he is recovering and in fair condition at OU Medical Center.
I left the office and headed southeast, toward Del City, Hackett’s town, to find out.
In southeast Oklahoma City, old warehouses and fast food joints opened up to reveal…more old warehouses and fast food joints. A pale, tattooed hitch hiker walked along the road near Trosper Park. I passed. Near Tinker Air Force Base, I found a little strip plaza with the take-out Domino’s store where Hackett worked, a 7-Eleven, dry cleaner and a liquor store.
For the sake of the assignment, I ordered a pizza. Really, they couldn’t kick me out if I was waiting to eat. An employee who enthusiastically convinced me to try the new deep dish was apologetic in passing along the news that she couldn’t talk to me about her co-worker. The manager wouldn’t come to the front of the store, either. I ate a slice outside in the hopes a regular customer might stop by who knew Hackett. That didn’t happen. Really, how well does any one know their pizza delivery guy? Three slices later and I’d gotten no where with my stupid idea, except for uncomfortably full of pizza (a tad dough-y, btw, much like I was soon to be).
