Youssef Harajly, a pizza delivery man for Pizza Place, was robbed and abducted inside an abandoned Detroit home.

DEARBORN – Youssef
Harajly never thought his life would be in danger on his way to delivering
three large pizzas to a Detroit home on the evening of Saturday, September 12.
But the outcome of that night has since left him restless.

Harajly, 31, who
has worked as a delivery man since 2011 for Pizza Place, located at 18706 Ford
Road, was held at gunpoint, robbed, stripped and trapped in an abandoned home
by five African American males in their late teens and early to mid 20s, when
he went to deliver a pizza on Stahelin Avenue.

It started out as
just another normal work night for Harajly. Along with making deliveries in
Dearborn and Dearborn Heights, he would frequently also deliver to Detroit
neighborhoods.

When he pulled up
into the driveway at a home on Stahelin Avenue, in the Warrendale area of the
city, he immediately began to suspect that something was fishy. From inside his
car, he attempted to call the customers to inform them that their delivery had
arrived. After three calls and no answer, Harajly pulled out of the driveway
and was getting ready to leave.

However, a man
appeared on the front porch and began waving him down.

Harajly pulled
back up onto the driveway and got out of his vehicle with the three large
pizzas. When he was just inches away, he noticed that one hand was hidden behind
the man’s back, while $6 was visible in his other hand.

The man placed a
gun to his head and told him to get inside the house. Four other men came out
of the front door and jumped Harajly, pulling him inside of the home. Harajly
recalled the home being abandoned.

“The only thing I
saw inside was a large plastic sheet on the floor,” an emotionally torn Harajly
said. “I thought that was it. I’m done. They were going to execute me. I
pleaded to them ‘please don’t kill me! take all my money, take my iPhone and my
car, just please don’t kill me.’”

Harajly noted that
four of the five men were in the same age range, while a fifth appeared to be
younger. The man he met on the front porch ordered the others to pin Harajly on
the plastic sheet.

With a gun jabbed
to his neck, the five men placed him on top of the plastic sheet and stripped
him to his underwear. They searched his pockets and snatched about $75 dollars
in cash, his wallet with his ID, a bracelet, his iPhone 6 and the keys to his
car.

The men, were not
satisfied, however. They thought Harajly was hiding more money.

“They kept asking
me where is the rest of the money,” Harajly said. “I can still feel the gun
jabbing on my neck.”

Harajly lied and
told the five men that he had money in a compartment located inside his trunk.
The month before, he had gotten into a fender bender that left his trunk
jammed. He figured the men would be unable to get into his trunk on site, thus
they would have to take his word.

After Harajly was
pinned on the plastic sheet for several minutes, the men decided it was time to
leave. The one with the gun ordered the young one to take care of Harajly while
they would run to the car and prepare their escape.

Harajly recalled
being ordered to step inside of a dark closet. As the young man attempted to
lock him inside, he said his survival instinct kicked in. He grabbed the
doorknob so that it wouldn’t lock once his captor shut it.

The youth placed a
chair under the doorknob so that Harajly would remain trapped if he attempted
to break the door. Harajly recalled waiting a few minutes and then hearing the
men take off in his car.

“As soon as I
heard them leave, I opened the door, knocked the chair over and grabbed my
clothes and started running,” Harajly said.

He escaped the
abandoned home and ran down the block to a liquor store at 18750 W. Warren
where the owners sheltered him and immediately called authorities.

“My face was
yellow,” Harajly said. “My adrenalin was rushing like never before.”

Detectives from
the Detroit Police Department told Harajly that there had been a string of
similar robberies in that neighborhood, possibly linked to the same men who
captured him. Since his incident, police have been able to get some leads from
neighbors.

On Monday, Harajly
identified two men when detectives asked him to look at photos of seven
suspects.

In the meantime,
he said he’s trying to put the pieces of his life back together. He already
received a replacement phone and he’s working on getting a new car so he can
get back to work.

While he’s
physically intact, Harajly said the incident has left him emotionally
shattered.

“I can’t sleep,”
Harajly said. “The incident keeps playing in my head over and over again. I
think about what I could have done differently or if there was a different outcome.”

Harajly said his
delivery to Stahelin Avenue will be his final one for Pizza Place. Harajly will
be working for Jet’s Pizza in Dearborn in the coming weeks.

He said he decided
to share his story with the community because he wants people to be aware of
what a job position like his entitles.

“I want the public
to know that our job is a risk on a daily basis,” Harajly said. “There are so
many people risking their lives doing this. It’s not just the pizza delivery
guy. It could’ve been the UPS woman or the mailman. These people deserve
respect and admiration for putting their lives on the line.”