Victim of bear spray attack: 'There’s better things to be doing ... than picking on the pizza delivery guy'

CHEHALIS, Wash. -- The pizza man thought he was making a delivering to a new customer. But the Lewis County man ended up getting shot in the face with bear deterrent spray during a failed robbery attempt.

Brian Norris spends a lot of his day driving around Lewis County, making deliveries for Sahara Pizza. He doesn’t think of it as a dangerous job.

“I know a few years back, I think one of the other local pizzerias had an incident. But down here, we don’t really experience stuff like that.”

So he didn’t think much when he headed out to a new customer in Centralia. But he says it was strange when he turned down Gleason Road, and a man started flagging him down.

“I glanced over at my seat at the dispatch ticket, and saw that the address didn’t match. Just about that time, he’s at my door.”

He rolled down his window, and tried to understand what the man was saying.

“He said he was sorry, I looked up and there’s this can of bear spray in my face.”

When Norris reached up and tried to knock the can away, the guy ran off. He tried to follow, but he was covered in a film of spray.

“The cops said I’m lucky I had my glasses on, got a little in my left eye. That’s when I was chasing the guy, made it hard to track him down.”

Norris knows he’s lucky he wasn’t hurt worse. Now he just hopes this guy is caught, so his employees don’t have to worry when they’re out making deliveries.

“There’s better things to be doing with your life than picking on the pizza delivery guy. I don’t know what he thought, but he would have only gotten 20 bucks ... and a pizza, I guess.”

Norris says the man was wearing a hoodie and glasses, so he didn’t get a good look at him. He says he was driving an older, smaller blue vehicle.

If you think you know who the would-be thief with the bear spray is, call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-tips.