It's Called Uber Eats, Not Uber Eats My Food: Austin Neighborhood Man Catches Delivery Driver Eating His Wing Order
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Wear a mask, wash your hands, how about keep your hands out of other people's bags?
As CBS 2's Charlie De Mar reported Wednesday night, an Austin neighborhood resident said his Uber Eats delivery driver liked his food so much that the driver ate some of it himself.
A 15-piece boneless chicken wing order turned out to be just too tempting for that delivery guy. The whole thing caught on camera, and the driver's explanation was simply that he was hungry.
There are security cameras all over Richard Jackson's home, and the driver was spotted on them.
"And he's walking along the grass and then my camera happened to pick him up. I gestured towards my camera," Jackson said. "He was clearly caught digging into my food."
The cameras light up and there are even warning signs alerting people to them. But that apparently didn't stop the delivery guy from helping himself to Jackson's dinner.
"He was digging into the bag, you know, sort of chucking the boneless wings – repeatedly popping them in," Jackson said. "This is when I see the sauce smeared all over the bag. It's missing several pieces of the chicken."
Jackson used Uber Eats to order dinner from Buffalo Wild Wings.
He said instead of his assigned delivery driver, a man hopped out of the passenger side door and almost immediately began rifling through the bag.
"It's concerning that he was so nonchalant," Jackson said, "especially during a pandemic where we have a highly transmissible disease."
A 2019 U.S. Foods study polled 500 deliverers - 28 percent - admitted to snagging customers food.
More than half say they have been tempted to do so by the smell.
"I did challenge him on why he was eating my food," Jackson said.
Jackson confronted the driver on the porch, and after a few moments, Jackson says he got an admission and refused to accept the order.
"He eventually admitted to eating my food," Jackson said. "He said, 'Oh, I was hungry.'"
Jackson did get a refund. He said he is also upset with Buffalo Wild Wings for not packaging the meal with tamper-proof seals stickers.
Based on Uber Eats' own rules and guidelines, it appears that the driver appears to have violated several protocols. A representative for Uber said they are looking into what happened.