East Brunswick Pizzeria Denies Serving Cop Pizza Box With 'Pig' Written On It

EAST BRUNSWICK, NJ — A family-owned East Brunswick pizzeria said they are getting threats and drive-by slurs shouted at them from the parking lot after a rumor started circulating on Facebook that they served a pizza box to an East Brunswick police officer with the word "pig" scrawled on it.

"This is not true and did not happen. I will tell you the true story as I've told hundreds of other people," Vito Mancini, 31, the owner of Mancini Pizza on Rt. 18, told Patch. "I will tell you exactly what happened and how this all started."

At about 6:45 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 1 a uniformed female East Brunswick police officer walked into his pizzeria and ordered a chicken panini, Mancini said. He was working that night and witnessed the entire encounter. While her panini was heating up, one of his employees took another woman's order, a single plain slice and garlic knots, out of the oven and put it in a pizza box. He wrote the letter 'P' for plain and the squiggly twist symbol for twists, he said.

The officer assumed that was her panini in the box and became furious, he said.

"She said, 'Why did you just write 'pig' on my box? She turned to other customers and said, 'What are you looking at?' We explained to her this was not her order; her order was still in the oven. This officer has come in here before to order food and she's very aggressive and has an attitude," he said. "She's sort of always looking for trouble."

Mancini did not want to name the officer. "She said something like, 'OK, look, I've had a bad day. Just give me my food.' And she left."

As far as Mancini knows, the officer never filed a formal complaint about the incident. She's also never been quoted in the media alleging this happened. Attempts to talk to the officer about the incident were not immediately successful. But somehow a rumor started circulating on Facebook that she was served a pizza box with an anti-police slur on it. Mancini said his small business has been boycotted; he's gotten telephone threats and he's concerned about safety for himself, his employees and his family. People have shouted things from the parking lot as they drive past.

"I am not going to repeat what they said. The point is we would never do something like this. We love the East Brunswick police. We've donated to the PBA," he said. He said that's a photo of the exact same pizza box the officer took offense to. He set it aside Aug. 1 because he had a feeling there would be a controversy over this.

The East Brunswick PBA fueled the fire with multiple statement they released Saturday, saying the officer refutes Mancini's version of events, and that that's not the actual pizza box.

"I don't know why they would release that statement. Some of my friends who are officers in the NYPD said they were appalled the East Brunswick PBA would get involved like this," said Mancini. "The issue is these days people will believe anything they read on Facebook."

East Brunswick Police Chief James Conroy said the department is looking into the incident.

"I have met with a representative of Mancini and I am aware of the fact that this has attracted comments and attention on social media," said Chief Conroy. "The East Brunswick Police Department is committed to building and maintaining our positive relationship with our community. We have a group of the finest and most professional law enforcement officers and staff whom I fully trust and support. There will be no further comments while this matter is being investigated."