On Your Side: Food delivery app drivers and package thieves
You order food to be delivered to your door, but instead, your packages are stolen. On Your Side's Kristine Lazar has a consumer warning for anyone who uses food delivery services.
It's convenient and hugely popular, but across the country, food delivery app customers are reporting that their drivers are taking more than just a tip.
Caught on camera: An Uber Eats driver enters a West Los Angeles condo complex. He goes up the elevator to make a delivery of a birthday cake.
"Then you see him walk back out of the elevator, take all the packages from the mailbox and walk out the door," said Lindsay Buxbaum.
Four of those packages belonged to Buxbaum. Her neighbor had ordered from Uber Eats. And when Buxbaum told that neighbor what had happened:
"We looked at the camera and realized that the person that delivered the cake wasn't actually the person in the picture from the Uber app," said Buxbaum.
Feeling vulnerable, the complex's homeowner association informed neighbors of a new rule for food deliveries.
"Now we have to get our deliveries outside our building and not let anyone in," said Buxbaum. "They are changing all of our HOA rules right now so that no one can enter this building to drop anything off except for the mail carrier."
And experts say that's a good idea. Never give access to a gate or locked entryway to a food delivery driver. Buxbaum contacted Uber about the theft, but was given several generic responses that are sent when someone is dissatisfied with their food.
"I wanted Uber to take responsibility for the fact that they hired someone who would do such a thing," said Buxbaum.
Amazon replaced Buxbaum's packages, but after On Your Side contacted Uber, they reached out to her and offered to reimburse her for the stolen goods.
In a statement to us, Uber said the behavior displayed by this delivery person has no place on the Uber platform. Uber says account sharing is not allowed and they have removed the driver's access to the app.
"The behavior exhibited by the delivery person in this video has no place on the Uber platform. We have removed this driver's access to the app and are working to reimburse Ms. Buxbaum for the items," the company said in a statement.
