Community rallies around Lelulo's Pizzeria after rocks found stuffed down sewage pipe

    Pennsylvania (KDKA) -- A popular pizza shop was forced to close for several days due to a tricky and expensive plumbing issue, but the community rallied around the owner by helping her get everything fixed up and pizzas back in the oven on Tuesday.

Lelulo's Pizzeria in Plum abruptly had to stop dishing out pies to loyal customers last week.

"I got a call from my staff Wednesday night that we had a severe plumbing issue," said Patyn McCune, owner of Lelulo's Pizzeria.

McCune said something unusual caused a massive sewage backup. A restoration crew came out to clean up the mess, and plumbers figured out what clogged the pipes.

"Two plumbing companies came out and both found that there were giant rocks stuffed into the pipe outside....I assumed it was something from the toilets or whatever," she said.

She said the rocks that were stuffed into the pipe were the size of softballs.

"They tried to vacuum thing where they can suck them out, they tried breaking them, and they found that the trap was actually broken from the rocks," said McCune.

"We closed Thursday and Friday, which was really rough because Friday is like our biggest day....and insurance takes a really long time if it's even going to cover certain situations," she added.

Stuck between a rock and a hard place, McCune posted on social media about what happened and kept customers updated on the cleanup and repairs.

"It led people to come forward about something that was kind of accidental and wasn't malicious in any way and they actually came forward to try to help me come to a resolution with the situation," she said.

"We come here a lot, takeouts, great local pizza place," said George Getlak.

Not only does Lelulo's provide delish slices of pizza, but the owner also does a lot for the community during hard times, like holding fundraisers and accepting donations at the restaurant.

McCune is cheesing now; she was able to reopen the doors to customers on Tuesday because so many Plum residents gave back to her and served up lots of support by sharing monetary donations.

"Everyone around here in Plum looks out for each other, and Lelulo's is a big part of that, you know it's just neighborhoods coming together, and Plum's always been a great place like that," Getlak said.

Thousands of dollars have been raised on a GoFundMe page a friend created to help with the unexpected, rocky sewage repairs.

"I think the GoFundMe is at like $7,500 which is amazing, and one of the families came together and donated cash towards the first initial step for the plumbing outside so everyone's really working together so it's a positive end to a poopy situation," McCune said.