Co-workers shocked after Chapel Hill driver shot while delivering cookies
The story was updated at 11:05 a.m. Wednesday, Dec. 16.
It’s not yet known whether a delivery driver will walk or work again after a violent carjacking last week in Chapel Hill, say friends and coworkers raising money for him.
Rob Perry, 33, was making his last delivery for Insomnia Cookies on East Franklin Street around 12:49 a.m. Friday when he was shot several times on Umstead Drive, near the Barclay Road intersection.
Perry was 20 feet from the customer’s front door getting out of his car when he was shot, said Susan Coe, a shift leader at Insomnia Cookies, who sent Perry out with the order. The customer heard the shots and saw the car — a green 2004 Toyota Avalon XL with NC license plate HHF-6582, according to police — speeding away, she said.
“All of us here at work are extremely shocked and emotional that a part of our team endured such an act of violence and we all agreed we need to do something for him,” Coe said in a post on the GoFundMe account that co-workers started to help pay Perry’s bills.
Police have said they found the driver — they have not released his name — in the driveway after getting the 911 call. Perry was only able to give them his first name, Coe said, and officers stopped by the store as she was closing to get more information.
Perry was shot four times and has had at least three operations at UNC Hospitals, Coe said. He could be paralyzed from the waist down, but won’t know until after a fourth surgery expected this week, she posted in a GoFundMe update late Tuesday.
Coe was able to talk with Perry, who was in good spirits, and his father on Tuesday and tell them about the fundraiser.
Perry “is determined and motivated and says he will walk again no matter what!” she said, and his father David Perry is grateful for the community’s support.
“Rob’s father David also wanted me to share that he is so thrilled and thankful for all the support the community has came together and provided for Rob,” Coe said.
Insomnia Cookies is taking care of Perry’s medical bills and also providing counseling for employees, who never thought something like that would happen in Chapel Hill, Coe said. They’re “all on edge,” she said.
“I went to work last night, and someone would say assign so-and-so an order, and I would just look at them. My body’s bursting full of energy and my hands are shaking,” Coe said. “I feel like I’m sending them out into a battlefield.”
Carrboro artist, valet driver
Perry had only worked at the store for a couple of months and was still being trained, Coe said. He also worked as a valet driver and lived in Carrboro, she said.
The News & Observer’s attempt to reach Perry’s family Tuesday was unsuccessful.
The High Point native moved to Ocoee, Florida, in 2019 to pursue an art career, according to an interview in the West Orange Times & Observer. He also started an online store, Vita Luna 100 Clothing and Design, while living in Florida, he told the newspaper.
The store’s website notes that Perry and another artist launched the idea for the business in 2013 in Raleigh.
Coe said she has replayed that night last week in her mind and wonders what she could have done differently.
It was minutes before closing. She had tried to send Perry home early because he was tired from working two jobs, she said, but he stuck around until the end of the shift. He had to wait for the last order, because they didn’t have the salted caramel cookie on hand, she said.
“If I had that cookie on hand and didn’t have to wait to send him out, maybe I could have sent him out earlier, and that wouldn’t have happened,” she said.
Police have asked that anyone with information about Perry’s shooting or his stolen car to call Chapel Hill police at 919-968-2760 between 8:30 a.m. and 5 p.m. weekdays or to call 911. Anonymous calls also can be made to Chapel Hill-Carrboro-UNC Crimestoppers at 919-942-7515. Anyone who calls Crimestoppers with information that leads to an arrest is eligible for a reward up to $2,000.
Coe said Perry and other employees didn’t see anything suspicious before the shooting.
The company has suspended deliveries to Pritchard Avenue Extension and Umstead Drive since the attack, she said. At least one GrubHub driver and two Domino’s drivers were robbed in a nearby parking lot on Pritchard Avenue Extension this year, she said.
A GoPuff driver also reported in September that someone had pointed a gun at her on North Columbia Street, about a quarter-mile from Pritchard Avenue Extension, according to a police report.
Many delivery drivers, including those working for Insomnia Cookies, don’t carry cash, Coe said.
Essential workers during COVID-19
Delivery drivers have become “essential workers” in the pandemic, bringing restaurant takeout, groceries and even toilet paper to customers who can’t or don’t want to venture out themselves.
It’s not clear whether Insomnia Cookies drivers are regular employees, but drivers for many restaurants and other companies work as independent contractors for small delivery fees and tips, often for long hours and six or seven days a week. They include high school and college students, full-time workers seeking extra money and drivers who may work more than one gig to make ends meet.
Independent contractors don’t have job security, minimum wage, insurance, or worker’s compensation and unemployment benefits. They are responsible for paying their own Social Security and Medicare taxes. But drivers are their own boss and have scheduling flexibility.
A 2019 Gallup survey found that over 28% of the nation’s workforce identified as self-employed in 2019, and over 14% identified themselves as independent contractors. The number of so-called gig economy jobs had declined since the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported 55 million people — or 34% of the workforce — were gig workers in 2017.
While the full effect of COVID-19 on the gig industry is still unknown, stay-at-home orders and layoffs have increased the demand for delivery services this year. A September study from freelance job platform Upwork that showed 2 million more workers had started freelance jobs in the previous 12 months.
The Upwork report found that 59 million workers had freelance jobs, about 36% of the U.S. workforce.
The job can be dangerous, because drivers visit unfamiliar addresses, spend hours on the road and work late-night hours. In January, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics listed “driver/sales workers and truck drivers” as the nation’s sixth most-dangerous job, noting 26 fatal injuries for every 100,000 workers.
The bureau also reported 621 fatalities among independent workers in 2018 — 21 in North Carolina — up from 613 fatalities in 2017. Roughly two-thirds involved workers 45 or older, and although falls, slips and traffic accidents made up most fatalities, the number of intentional injuries by another person, including shootings and homicides, also had increased.
Stateline, a news initiative of The Pew Charitable Trusts, noted in an October report that more cities are seeing carjackings and vehicle thefts involving delivery drivers this year.
While most agencies don’t track crimes involving delivery drivers, police in Louisville, Kentucky, have seen the number of carjackings rise from 68 in the period from March 1 to mid-October 2019 and 194 over the same period this year — a 185% increase. Louisville law enforcement is working with state and federal partners now to make it a federal crime, which carries tougher penalties, the story said.
In Washington, D.C., police reported the number of carjackings and attempted carjackings rose from 89 over that same period in 2019 to 193 in 2020 — a 117% increase.
Law enforcement has attributed much of the increase to criminals taking advantage of more people having food and items delivered. The report also cited social unrest, unemployment and school closures for the increase.
The Raleigh Police Department has not seen a pattern of attacks targeting delivery drivers but does not track crimes against a specific occupation, spokeswoman Donna-maria Harris said. The Durham Police Department also has not seen a “notable recent increase” in crime targeting delivery drivers, spokeswoman Kammie Michael said.
Chapel Hill Police Department spokesman Ran Northam said they were only able to identify two crimes targeting delivery drivers since January 2019, but that the department also does not track that data. That could change in the future, Northam said.
This story was originally published December 15, 2020 at 3:10 PM.
