Ohio Little Caesars Employees Fired for Making Pepperoni Swastika on Pizza

Two employees at a Little Caesars pizza parlor in the Cleveland suburb of Brook Park were fired after making a swastika shaped in pepperoni on a pizza delivered on June 27.

The pizza was delivered to Jason and Misty Laska; Jason Laska told CNN that Little Caesars had told him that the two employees had made the pizza as a joke among themselves and that they didn’t mean to deliver the pizza.

“Even in a joking manner, it’s absolutely unacceptable,” he said.

Laska also told WEWS: “These are the kinds of things that are continuing to fuel the hate and the confusion that exists in the country and in the world.”

Jill Proctor, a spokesperson for Little Caesars, told WEWS that the two employees responsible for the swastika, both of whom were under the age of 18, were immediately let go.

“We have zero tolerance for racism and discrimination in any form, and these franchise store employees were immediately terminated,” she said. “We’re deeply disappointed that this happened, as this conduct is completely against our values.”

Liora Rez, director of the Stop Anti-Semitism.org watchdog, said in a statement to the Journal, “We applaud Little Caesar’s Pizza for acting swiftly denouncing this vile act of hate and immediately firing the two employees involved. We also would like to commend the couple who immediately shared the disgusting incident on social media, alerting the Cleveland news. It’s much easier to brush something aside and ignore it vs. calling it out! Kudos to them.”

An Ohio couple was shocked to find a swastika on their Saturday night pizza order from @littlecaesars 😯

The pizza chain commented – “We have zero tolerance for racism and discrimination in any form, and these franchise store employees were immediately terminated.” pic.twitter.com/n1J6xWIctg

— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) June 29, 2020