How a surge in late-night pizza orders at the Pentagon predicted Israel's attack on Iran
Pentagon Pizza Report, an account on X with over 69,000 followers, posted a photo on Thursday night of a traffic surge at the Domino's Pizza in Arlington, which is about a 10-minute drive from the Pentagon.
The account monitors online orders for pizzerias near the Pentagon and the White House and posts screenshots of when they're busy.
At around 7 pm on Thursday night, Pentagon Pizza Report posted, 'As of 6:59pm ET nearly all pizza establishments nearby the Pentagon have experienced a HUGE surge in activity.'
A few hours later, the account shared wait times for a nearby bar, writing, 'Freddie's Beach Bar, the closest gay bar to the Pentagon, has abnormally low traffic for a Thursday night. Potentially indicating a busy night at the Pentagon.'
Israel launched the first air strikes against Iran on Friday at 3 am local time/8 pm EST, just an hour after the Pentagon Pizza Report noted a drastic surge in activity.
Pizza takeout only grew as the night continued, with the account noting that the Domino's on 2602 Columbia Pike had abnormally high traffic just before 9 pm EST.
Traffic continued to skyrocket, and the second closest Domino's to the Pentagon also picked up some additional customers, experiencing 'extremely' high levels of activity around 11 pm EST.
Social media users were quick to point out the connection online, with one comment reading, 'This was a great catch, within an hour bombs flying in Tehran.'
'I feel like this really is telling us that there's a panic at these places,' another added.
'The pentagon needs its own pizza place inside the building. this is embarrassing,' a third noted.
A fourth agreed, 'This is a security risk.'
Pentagon Pizza Report screenshots data from Google, which uses an algorithm to track what times of day certain businesses are popular.
Google displays the graph when someone uses the search engine to look up a business.
Live visit data is also displayed so customers can check Google to see how busy a business is at that time.
Google uses an algorithm from users who have opted in to Google Location History to display the data.
Owners can't manually alter the information, and the tracking graph only comes up for businesses that have enough data from Google Location History.
Although the data isn't perfectly accurate, it does give an estimate of when businesses tend to experience their busiest hours.
Social media users have taken to accounts like Pentagon Pizza Report online to not only track if nearby businesses are experiencing high activity, but have also used the platform as a way to see if military personnel are staying late at the office.
The attack in the Middle East on Thursday night indicated a foreign relations emergency for high-level officials in Washington DC.
Israel's attack against Iran on Friday morning targeted the country's nuclear facilities.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the operation was intended to 'roll back the Iranian threat to Israel's survival. '
Three of Iran's top military leaders and two nuclear scientists were killed in the strikes.
sending over 100 drones to Israel, most of which were deflected.
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