Four robbers who planned to rob a pizza delivery boy after ordering delivery to an abandoned house were in for a surprise when a former NFL linebacker showed up with the pie instead.

Napoleon Harris III, the former NFL linebacker and Illinois state senator, is the owner of two Chicago-area Beggars pizza franchises and was sitting in one of them right before closing time when a last minute call came in, The Daily Mail reported.

Harris offered to deliver the pizza himself since the crew was overwhelmed, but he didn’t know that the house was vacant.

Harris arrived at the house, located on the 15800 block of Paulina Avenue in Harvey, Illinois when one of the robbers came to greet him, The Twin Cities Pioneer Pressreported.

Three others emerged from the bushes to try and take him down, but they failed in their attempts to do so.

“They put a chokehold on the senator, but to no avail. They were really trying to choke him to death, and he was just too strong. He out-powered all four of them,” spokesperson for Harvey police Sean Howard said to CBS 2. “As they were all beating on him, one guy just went out of his way and really hit him hard, and Napoleon never moved.”

The men managed to take the pizza and Harris’s wallet before they fled in a Chevy Tahoe, but Harris followed them to a lumber mill before he called the cops.

The men fled the scene and left the Tahoe behind, which was registered to a Georgia man named Lester Jones. Jones was later found dead in Georgia.

Police were able to track down all four suspects and bring them into custody.

Malik Mayer was charged with murder and financial transaction card fraud for using Jones’s ATM card September 15.

A juvenile was also arrested but he could not be identified.

Lawrence Hines was arrested on charges of murder at a Georgia mental health facility later in September.

A fourth person from Gary, Indiana is expected to face charges for mugging Harris.