Workers at Roberta’s, a popular pizza joint in Brooklyn, received threatening phone calls last week from people who apparently believe a debunked online hoax claiming Hillary Clinton is tied to a child sex trafficking ring that operates out of pizza restaurants.
In one such call placed on Dec. 1, police say, the caller told a 24-year-old employee, “You are going to bleed and be tortured.”
According to DNAinfo, Roberta’s received a similar call the next day. In the second instance, the caller asked if the restaurant had any relation to a website known for spreading fake news about “Pizzagate,” as the conspiracy theory is now known.
A YouTube video published last week claims Roberta’s is tied to the larger hoax. Grubstreet notes it has upwards of 10,000 views.
On Sunday, a man armed with an assault rifle went to Comet Ping Pong, a pizzeria in D.C., in an attempt to “self-investigate” the Pizzagate story. The man, identified as Edgar Welch of North Carolina, apparently believed he’d find a series of secret tunnels at the back of the shop in which children were hidden. He surrendered to police when he realized there was no evidence the hoax was true.
Roberta’s did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Huffington Post.