A six-year-old boy ordered nearly $1,000 worth of food delivery from his father’s phone after he had a late-night craving for chili cheese fries and pepperoni pizza.
Keith Stonehouse, from Chesterfield Township, Michigan, was home with his youngest son Mason on Saturday night when the six year old asked if he could play on his dad’s phone.
According to Keith, who spoke to Today, he gave his son the phone, along with a 30-minute time limit, in the belief that the six year old would spend the time playing games.
However, after Keith put his son to bed, he realised that Mason had actually spent the last half hour ordering food deliveries on Grubhub.
The first order arrived around 9pm on Saturday, according to Keith, who told Today he initially assumed it was a client dropping off cake supplies for his wife’s cake-baking business.
But, the deliveries kept coming as delivery drivers continued to leave large packages of food ordered by Mason.
“It’s five orders of 20-piece jumbo shrimp, a bunch of chicken sandwiches, chili cheese fries and ice cream and grape leaves and rice and more sandwiches, and I’m like: ‘What is going on?’” Keith told the outlet. “I’m piling it all up and I couldn’t figure it out.”
At that point, Keith said he looked down at his phone, at which point he saw a “continuous scroll of Grubhub reminders and alerts”.
The father of two also saw a fraud alert from his bank informing him that it had declined a $439 order from the restaurant Happy’s Pizza.
However, multiple orders to other restaurants had gone through, along with the 25 per cent tips Mason had entered.
According to Keith, he tried to call the restaurants in an effort to cancel the orders, but was told to contact Grubhub.
“There’s nothing you can do. So I just had to take it and that was that,” he told Today.
As the food deliveries continued to arrive on the family’s doorstep, Keith, who told MLive he was “probably a 9.5 out of 10 anger while it was happening,” went to speak to his son.
However, rather than show remorse for his actions, Keith told the outlet that the six year old inquired about the status of his pepperoni pizzas.
“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,” he recalled.
According to Keith, he and his wife ultimately sat their son down for a long talk, during which they tried to explain to Mason the value of money. The father of two said they also informed Mason they would be taking money out of his piggy bank to cover a portion of the cost of each of his deliveries.
Speaking to Fox2, the six year old said he’d had $115 in his piggy bank before he’d gone on his food-ordering spree, but that he was left with just one cent after he’d paid his parents back.
However, Keith acknowledged that the six year old would get the money back eventually. “I think it’s sunk in a little bit. Obviously he’s six. We’re not actually going to keep it, and we’re going to give it to him later down the road,” he told Today.
Grubhub also attempted to improve the situation, with a spokesperson for the food delivery service telling The Independent that the company reached out to the family to offer $1,000 worth of Grubhub gift cards.
As for what the family did with all of their food, Keith told MLive that the family refrigerated most of it, and invited their neighbours over to eat the rest of the feast.
The father of two also said that he would be changing the password on his phone.
The Independent has contacted Keith Stonehouse for comment.
