HAZARD — One local family allegedly got a potentially dangerous and unexpected topping on their pizza this weekend when they ordered from a local pizza shop.

It was Sunday night when the family ordered from the Papa John’s in Hazard, and when they opened the box and started pulling apart the slices they allegedly found something they never expected, half of a hydrocodone pill. Chief Deputy Tony Eversole of the Perry County Sheriff’s Office said that he was surprised when he got a call from someone he knew asking advice of what to do about finding a pain pill in their pizza.

“Somebody that I know had called me directly and said that they just had a pizza delivered from Papa John’s, and they were taking it apart and a pill fell out,” said Eversole.

Even though he was off duty, Eversole decided to check out the situation and called another deputy who was on duty to meet him at Papa John’s. “They gave us permission to look around and we asked everybody to empty their pockets and we found a pill in one of the employee’s hats,” said Eversole.

The employee was Arthur Stacy of Knott County, according to Eversole, who said that he believes that the pill fell out of Stacy’s hat while he was making the pizza. “It was under the toppings, so it wasn’t placed there by the driver or anything. I think it had been baked in the pizza,” said Eversole.

While it doesn’t appear to be an intentional act, it still put the person eating the pizza at risk, Eversole said, addingt that he and many others have medication allergies that could have resulted in a reaction to the pill if it had been eaten.

This was the first time that Eversole had heard of something like this happening.

Stacy was charged with possession and the files were turned over to Perry County Health Department.

Papa John’s does not currently do any random drug testing of their employees, although Eversole advised them that it may be a good idea to start. “As a policy they do not do random drug tests, so I strongly suggest that they do that,” he said.

A manager contacted at the store Tuesday declined to comment.