Kirk Alexander of Salem, Oregon was a loyal Domino’s Pizza customer. So loyal, in fact, that when he didn’t place an order at the restaurant for almost two weeks, the eatery’s staff got worried.
This concern, said authorities, likely saved Alexander’s life.
Sarah Fuller, the general manager at a Salem-area Domino’s, told KOIN.com that Alexander, 48, had been a regular customer since 2009.
“He orders every day, every other day,” Fuller said. “His order pops up on the screen because he orders online. So we see it come across the screen and we’re like, ‘Oh, Kirk’s order.’”
But last week was different. Several days passed without a single order from Alexander.
"A few of my drivers had mentioned that we hadn't seen his order come across our screen in a while,” Fuller told KATU.com.
When she checked the restaurant’s database, Fuller discovered that it’d been 11 days since Alexander’s last order, “which is not like him at all,” she said.
On Sunday morning, Fuller asked longtime delivery driver Tracey Hamblen to visit Alexander, who neighbors said rarely left his home. But when Hamblen arrived at Alexander's house, he knew something was amiss. The lights were on and the TV was playing, but Alexander didn’t come to the door. He also didn’t pick up the phone.
According to the sheriff's office, deputies heard a man “calling for help from inside the residence” when they arrived at the scene. Upon entering the home, they found Alexander, who reportedly suffers from severe health issues, in “need of immediate medical attention.”
Alexander was whisked to the hospital, where he is now recovering.
The sheriff's office expressed their gratitude to Hamblen “for his quick actions and willingness to take time out of his day to care for others.”
The Domino's crew was widely praised on social media for their life-saving actions. Fuller, however, insisted that the team was just doing their job.
“[Alexander is] just an important customer that’s part of our family here at Domino’s. He orders all the time so we know him. I think we were just doing our job checking in on someone we know who orders a lot. We felt like we needed to do something,” she told KOIN.com.
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