Two delivery people from a local pizza restaurant were mugged at NIU and the store’s safe was stolen during the weekend, police said Monday.

The first victim, a delivery person from Pizza Villa, 824 W. Lincoln Hwy., was dropping off an order of beer nuggets at Grant Towers North early Saturday morning, said University Police Sgt. Ralph Taylor. A man wearing a black leather jacket with red lettering tried to snatch the bag of food away from the delivery person, he said.

Words were exchanged and the delivery person called the man a “drunk” and told him to leave him alone, he said.

The assailant then swung at the delivery person, who blocked his punch and cracked him across the nose with his walkie-talkie, Taylor said.

The delivery person fled the lobby, pursued by the assailant—who was bleeding from the nose—and three other men, he said.

Five minutes later, another Pizza Villa delivery person tried to deliver a pizza and an order of beer nuggets to Grant Towers South, Taylor said.

A man dressed in black and bleeding from the nose grabbed the bag of beer nuggets from his hand, and the food fell to the floor, he said. The assailant then threw the beer nuggets at the delivery person.

When the delivery person returned to his truck, the vehicle’s keys were missing from the ignition.

This was the third time a pizza delivery person was mugged at NIU this semester. “This seems like it’s happening more and more to pizza drivers. There’s not much security there at the dorms,” said Pizza Villa owner Larry Finn.

Sometime between Sunday night and Monday morning, someone stole a safe from the restaurant that contained between $300 and $400 in change and some checks, Finn said. The stolen keys did not include ones that open the restaurant, he said.

There were no signs of forced entry, but a door was found ajar, Finn said.