Residents of an LA neighborhood receive mysterious paid food deliveries

Business

By Andrew Miller, Fox Business

March 19, 2023 | 4:45 in the morning

Residents of a Northeast Los Angeles neighborhood are baffled by paid food deliveries that show up at their doorsteps even though they haven’t been ordered.

Los Angeles Times reported this week that residents of Range View Avenue in the Highland Park neighborhood have received chicken sandwiches, milkshakes, pastries, coffee and other items they never ordered from food delivery services like Uber Eats.

The unsolicited deliveries began in February, and a handful of people told the Times they sometimes received several orders a day. It is not clear if the orders are some kind of scam or prank.

Residents say that the delivery drivers have not been able to provide much information about the person who made the orders, because they do not know or because other people’s names are used in the deliveries.

“The drivers always laugh at the situation,” Range View resident Will Neal, a documentary filmmaker, said.

“It’s kind of remarkable what they can do with a pancake sandwich,” Neal added, jokingly referring to the four unsolicited McDonald’s McGriddles he received at his home on Feb. 25 — the first of 40 mystery deliveries to his home.

Some of the residents have eaten the food, some have thrown it away and others have donated it to local charities.

“I don’t trust it — I throw it away,” Dean Sao, a carpenter at nearby Pasadena City College, told the outlet. “I don’t know who will do it. We joked at first: it has to be Elon Musk – I don’t know who else could afford it.

Morgan Currier, who received 30 deliveries, told the outlet that she had asked the delivery driver to call the number associated with the order and it had been disconnected.

An Uber spokesperson told Fox Business that the company has launched an investigation into the source of the orders and has “taken action” against several accounts.

The spokesperson added that the company is monitoring orders sent to that part of Highland Park.