Pizzeria Paradiso is offering a free pizza party to anyone with tips on its stolen oven.
In April of 2020, shortly after the coronavirus lockdowns began, an older two-tone pickup truck stole a mobile brick oven from the Hyattsville restaurant’s parking lot.
Covered in orange and blue tiles that spell out Pizzeria Paradiso, the custom-made oven from Beltsville’s Marra Forni — which also designed a similar wood-fired oven inside the eatery — was used at festivals and other events.
Owner Ruth Gresser, who had long given up on recovering the oven, told the Washingtonian that a customer recently told her they had seen a pickup hauling the mobile oven on University Boulevard in Wheaton.
Whoever stole the oven may be having second thoughts. Although it cost the pizzeria about $30,000 to make, it’s not exactly easy to sell, given the restaurant’s name splashed across the top. At nearly 3,500 pounds, it’s not easy to move around, either.
Send any tips to info@eatyourpizza.com and contact the police if you see the oven.
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