Technology makes it easier and easier to get what you need these days. Anything from clothes to books can be at your fingertips thanks to our cell phones. Even food can be an easy-to-get item with the right apps. And when you’re hungry, sometimes you just want your food as soon as possible. Especially if you’re a 6-year-old with Dad’s phone in your hands.
That’s a lesson a Michigan dad learned when his doorbell kept ringing from delivery people with food he hadn’t ordered. Or so he thought. Keith Stonehouse said that at first, he assumed the deliveries were for his wife’s bakery business. He had been home with his son, Mason, while his wife was out.
And like most parents, he lent his son his phone to play a game. But then the chaos began. Stonehouse said the doorbell kept ringing and the food just kept showing up. Everything from salads, five orders of jumbo shrimp, chili cheese fries, ice cream and shawarma made their way to the house.
This was like something out of a “Saturday Night Live” skit.”
He told MLive reporters that he is still struggling to find it quite as funny as everyone else does. “I was probably a 9.5 out of 10 anger while it was happening. The next day, I was at an eight and now I’m at about a three. I don’t really find it funny yet, but I can laugh with people a little bit. It’s a lot of money and it kind of came out of nowhere.”
Stonehouse said his youngest is still trying to grasp why it was wrong for him to order the food from Grubhub. “He’s 6, so it doesn’t kind of sink in. It’s not like if our 13-year-old did this, then it would sink in to him,” he said.
Mason Stonehouse recently got a hold of his dad’s phone. The hungry kid opened up Grubhub and what came next was delivery after delivery. Photo by the Stonehouse family.
It only took a few orders for Stonehouse to realize it didn’t have anything to do with his wife’s bakery business. But unfortunately once it had started, there was no way to stop it. There was so much being ordered from so many restaurants that the family’s bank notified the Stonehouses of a fraud alert. The bank declined one $439 order from a pizza place, but a $183 order of jumbo shrimp from the same restaurant did make it to the young boy.
“The doorbell rang again and it kept happening. Car after car. Cars were pulling into the driveway while others were pulling out. I finally asked one of them what they were delivering. He said we ordered chicken shawarmas. I took the food and then it hit me. I looked at my phone with repeated messages that my food was getting ready, my food was being delivered. I looked at my bank account and it was getting drained.”
After it was all over, the family refrigerated most of the food, as well as gave some to their neighbors. “While all of the food was being delivered and I figured out what happened,” Stonehouse said, “I went to talk to Mason about what he did and this is the only part that makes me laugh. I was trying to explain to him that this wasn’t good and he puts his hand up and stops me and says “Dad, did the pepperoni pizzas come yet?” I had to walk out of the room. I didn’t know if I should get mad or laugh. I didn’t know what to do.”
Mason’s mom, Kristin, told reporters that Grubhub offered the family a $1,000 gift card, and mentioned possibly using the family in an online ad for the company. “I knew this could happen, but you just don’t think your kid is going to do something like this. He’s definitely smart enough, I just didn’t expect it.”
@mlivenews The doorbell just kept ringing and the cars just kept coming. A 6-year-old Michigan boy went on a wild $1,000-dollar spending spree using his father’s Grubhub account, ordering large amounts of food from numerous area restaurants. #greenscreen #michigan #michiganders #michigancheck #ohno #grubhub ♬ original sound – MLive
Sources: Daily Mail | Fortune | MLive
