LA residents receive mysterious paid food deliveries

Residents in a northeast Los Angeles neighborhood were puzzled by a series of paid grocery deliveries that showed up on their doorsteps when they weren’t ordered.

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

Unsolicited deliveries began in February, and a handful of people told the Times they sometimes get multiple orders a day. It’s not clear if the orders are a scam or a prank.

Local residents say the delivery drivers weren’t able to provide much information about who is placing the orders because they either didn’t know or because the deliveries are using other people’s names.

“Drivers are always laughing at the situation,” said Will Neal, a Range View resident who is a documentary filmmaker.

“It’s amazing what they can do with a pancake sandwich,” Neal added in a joking reference to the four unsolicited McDonald’s McGriddles he received at his home on Feb. 25 — the first of 40 mysterious deliveries to his home.

Some residents ate the food, some threw it away, and others donated it to local charities.

“I don’t trust that — I’m throwing it out,” Dean Sao, a carpenter at nearby Pasadena City College, told the outlet. “I don’t know who’s doing this. At first we joked: That must be Elon Musk – I don’t know who else could afford it.”

Morgan Currier, which had received 30 deliveries, told the store the delivery driver called the number associated with the order and the connection was lost.

An Uber spokesman told Fox Business that the company has launched an investigation into the origin of the orders and has “taken action” against a number of accounts.

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