Delivery Man-Robber Hits the Upper West Side

You would think that the restaurants would have screened the callers a bit better after the first couple of robberies.

where's Charles Bronson when we need him?

better yet, bring back Bernie Goetz

how do you screen a caller making an telephone order? ask them if he's going to rob anyone tonight?

You get their phone number and call them back on it after a while. If it's a cell, the police would eventually be able to trace it back to its owner. If it's a fake or made-up number, either there'll be no answer, it'll be out of service or the real resident will say they didn't order anything. Of course, it could be a payphone, but there aren't that many of those around nowadays, and if he sticks around to wait for the callback, he'd be risking suspicion since the only people who wait around payphones are often drug dealers.