A pizza restaurant in Cheyenne, Wyoming, was left with 18 freshly made pizzas worth about $300 after a large order turned out to be fraudulent. L’Osteria Mondello had prepared the pizzas after receiving a call from someone who reportedly said they were ordering food for a children’s wrestling club. The customer never arrived to collect the order, and when restaurant owner Dave Agovic called the number provided, the person who answered said they had not placed the order. Instead of throwing away the food or simply absorbing the loss, Agovic decided to donate the pizzas to the emergency room at Cheyenne Regional Medical Center. An unexpected helping hand then arrived when former restaurant employee Ryan Lemley volunteered to deliver the unwanted pizzas to hospital staff.

$300 pizza order turned into a prank

The incident happened on August 14, 2026, when L’Osteria Mondello received an unusually large order for 18 pizzas. The caller reportedly told the restaurant that the food was intended for a children’s wrestling club, giving the staff a reason to believe it was a legitimate group order. The kitchen prepared the entire order, with the pizzas taking around 40 minutes to make. Once they were finished, the restaurant kept them warm above the ovens while waiting for the customer to arrive and collect them. Nobody showed up, however, and the situation became suspicious. Agovic eventually called the telephone number supplied with the order, only for the person who answered to say they had not ordered the pizzas. That convinced the restaurant that someone had used the number to place a fraudulent order.

The restaurant was already handling a busy evening

The fake order arrived during an especially hectic period for the restaurant. Agovic said the kitchen was simultaneously preparing another order for around 12 or 13 pizzas and a separate order for another seven or eight. That meant staff were dealing with more than 40 pizzas at roughly the same time. The restaurant became so busy that it temporarily stopped taking additional orders and warned customers that new orders could take between 1½ and 2 hours. The unexpected 18-pizza order therefore consumed significant kitchen time and ingredients at a moment when staff were already under pressure. Once the supposed customer failed to appear, the restaurant was left with a large amount of food that had been prepared specifically for an order that did not exist.

Why the restaurant did not ask for payment upfront

Agovic said L’Osteria Mondello generally does not require customers to pay for orders in advance. His approach is based partly on trust, and he told Cowboy State Daily that a similar incident had happened only once before during his roughly 3½ years running the restaurant. The policy meant the restaurant had little protection against someone placing a large order without intending to collect it. The incident therefore cost the business not only the value of the pizzas but also the staff time and ingredients required to prepare them. Rather than immediately changing the restaurant’s approach, Agovic focused on finding a useful destination for the food that had already been made.

Owner decides to donate all 18 pizzas

With the order abandoned, Agovic discussed the situation with his employees and suggested taking the pizzas to a hospital instead of allowing them to go to waste. The restaurant chose the emergency room at Cheyenne Regional Medical Center, turning what had started as a frustrating loss into an unexpected donation. The decision meant that the pizzas could still be eaten rather than discarded after the restaurant had spent time and money preparing them. The incident also gave the restaurant an opportunity to help people working in a demanding environment. Importantly, reports indicate that the pizzas were donated to emergency-room staff rather than specifically to patients, so the episode is best described as a donation to hospital workers.

Former employee volunteers to deliver the pizzas

The hospital donation became possible with help from a former member of the restaurant team. Ryan Lemley, an 18-year-old who had worked at L’Osteria Mondello for more than two years, happened to stop by the restaurant while staff were deciding what to do with the pizzas. After hearing about the abandoned order, Lemley volunteered to take the food to the hospital. He delivered the pizzas to the emergency room at Cheyenne Regional Medical Center, ensuring that the restaurant did not have to throw away the entire order. Agovic later praised Lemley for stepping in and described him as his “hero that day”. His involvement added an unexpected second act of kindness to an incident that had initially been caused by someone else’s prank.

The pizzas found a new purpose at the hospital

The 18 pizzas ultimately ended up with workers at the Cheyenne Regional Medical Center emergency room. What had been prepared for a supposed children’s wrestling club instead became an unplanned meal for hospital staff. The episode illustrates how quickly the value of unwanted food can change when a business finds a practical way to redirect it. Rather than allowing the food to become waste, L’Osteria Mondello used an existing community connection to put the pizzas to use. The restaurant also shared the story publicly, helping the unusual incident spread beyond Cheyenne and attracting attention because of the positive response to the prank.

The owner chose a positive response to the prank

The incident could have ended simply as a $300 loss for a small restaurant, but Agovic’s decision changed the outcome. The restaurant still absorbed the cost of the ingredients and labour, while the person who placed the order remained unidentified in the available reporting. Yet the business chose not to let the prank determine what happened to the food. By donating the 18 pizzas and accepting help from a former employee, L’Osteria Mondello turned an attempted waste of food into a gesture towards hospital workers. The episode ultimately left the restaurant out of pocket, but it also created a story about trust, community and making the best of an unexpectedly bad situation.